A S C E N S I O N : An SAO Story
by Serodin007
Summary: Asuna and Kirito are haunted by a dark shadow bent on revenge. Secrets locked deep within Asuna's mind become the target of an evil with the will to dominate the world. With this at stake, Kirito is thrown into a world of mystery, secrecy, and danger, without his swords to help him. Will he be able to ascend as a hero in the real world, or will he lose Asuna to the darkness?
1. Chapter 1

[ SWORD ART ONLINE]

[ ASCENSION ]

by  
SERODIN007  
[ Mikhail Barlow ]

(^^,)

[ This is a work of fiction based upon the original story and characters created by Reki Kawahara. All similarities to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, are purely coincidental ]

[ Sword Art Online was created by Reiki Kawahara. This novel is a homage to his work. ]

[ A note to the fans]

[This story takes place after the events of Alfheim (books 3 and 4), and briefly before the events of Gun Gale (5 and 6). Note that I have not read past book 4 in the series, so if you have any continuity complaints, please remember this. Being a work of fiction, be open-minded and understand that I have taken some liberties with the characters. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy my work. ]

[ Updates to this fiction will come as soon as I have time to grind my keyboard to dust for an afternoon or two. ]

_"There is no meaningful difference between a virtual world and the real world. The player and the character are one and the same. To act as the villain here would be to change who you are in reality. To act the hero would mean to accept that mantle in reality as well."  
_- Kirigaya Kazuto

**- Chapter 01 - **

Gentle light creped through the window that morning. It was warm in my bed, and I didn't want to stir from my sleep. As the warmth of sunlight finally crossed my face, my eyes slowly opened. I took a deep breath of warm air, and felt the soft weight of a sleeping girl on my chest. Asuna, my love, was still sleeping deeply, her head resting on my chest and her fingers intertwined with mine. I raised an arm and ran my fingers through her braided chestnut hair, which was gleaming in the warm light. She was truly beautiful, and I was blessed to have her in my life. After everything she and I had been through together – everything we had suffered through together - having her finally safe and sound in my arms gave me a feeling of peace.

I moved my hand down and rubbed her back, feeling the softness of her skin underneath my palm. With this, she finally stirred.

"Mmm…Don't stop," She whispered. I smiled widely, and gently rubbed her back more. She shifted in response to my motions. After a few minutes, Asuna finally pushed herself up with her arms, towering above me in all of her beauty and pushed a single lock out of her face. She smiled, then covered my lips with hers. We kissed softly for a few seconds.  
"I'm going to shower." She said. "I have work in an hour,"

"Okay," I reluctantly let her leave the bed and walk to the bathroom. The door clicked closed, and I heard the shower start. I let out a big sigh, closing my eyes, still not moving. I felt at absolute peace.

Minutes passed before I stirred. I was also obligated to get up. It was summer, in the rainy season, and though I was on break for school, I had studying for college entrance exams to do, not to mention work. Two years stuck in Sword Art Online had pushed me back a grade in school, and I had spent my entire summer catching up in cram school. The little free time I had after finishing cram school was spent either studying or working, selling video games at a local store. Though school was off and I was enjoying the extra time I was getting to spend with Asuna, the real world had its own share of challenges for me to face.

This apartment, after all, wasn't going to pay for itself. It was more like a shanty, on the second floor of a medium-sized complex with small rooms and an unappealing exterior. But, Asuna and I had made the decision to start living together a few months ago, and we did the best we could with our money. It wasn't much, but it was ours, and we wanted to protect it.

Business with each of our families was touch-and-go at the moment. We wanted to be intimate with each other; openly express our love as often as we could, but doing that while both of us were living at a house with parents and siblings had been impossible. The occasional date and hanging out were certainly possible, but we wanted more than that. After all, we had been married in Aincrad. Truthfully, our dream was to eventually earn enough money to move into a suburban cottage or cabin away from society, similar to how we had lived together in the game. But that cottage in SAO didn't have the restrictions of the real world. Owning our own home, and starting a family, eventually, would take considerable money. But, it was our dream, and we were willing to work for it.

Asuna emerged from the bathroom ten minutes later among a waft of steam. She was wearing a towel and her hair was tied up in back with a bun. She moved into the next room to change into her work uniform. I reluctantly rolled out of the warm bed, lazily replacing the sheets and covers, and trudged over to the shower myself.

After I was clean and dressed, I could smell the familiar scent of Asuna's cooking from the kitchen. She was making spicy omelets - my favorite breakfast - wearing a cute apron with red bows on the shoulders. Her amber eyes glittered as she welcomed me to the kitchen table. She presented me with a beautiful wrap of eggs, ham, and a red sauce that made my nose tingle. She giggled at my expression and took the seat across from me at the table. We ate our breakfast quickly, and then I took care of the skillet and our two plates in the sink.

As I was scrubbing, Asuna came up behind me, still wearing her apron, and put her arms around my waist. "Mmmm…" she hummed in my ear. "I'm off to work. I'll be back a bit late tonight. There's something I want to pick up from the store on the way back."  
"Okay," I said. "You be careful, Asuna,"  
She nibbled the lobe of my ear, which made me flinch. She giggled.

"You too, Kazuto." She let go of my waist and skipped out the door of our apartment, glancing at me once more before leaving me to finish the dishes uninterrupted.

I sighed. The last few months of living together with Asuna had been like heaven. Without the inconveniences of having parents, siblings, or other nuisances around, we could be as romantic with each other as we wanted to be. She and I had taken full advantage of this fact, as often as we had time and energy. After all… we were healthy young adults…

I suddenly felt my face begin to tingle with a familiar feeling as I thought about that. Asuna and I almost seemed like one of those faerie-tale romances out of a monthly manga magazine, and I had to admit, I felt as though I was playing the part of a character rather than living a real life. It was pessimistic of me to think so, but I admitted that this way of life couldn't last forever - certainly not while both of us were attending college next year. Though Asuna came from more substantial money than I, it wasn't enough to afford our lifestyle without getting a job. The next few years would be busy, for both of us.

"I wish these days could last forever," I said aloud to myself. I knew that one day, we would be able to relax a little more and return to being more intimate, but, perfect mornings like this one… I feared they might disappear someday.

I finished the dishes and retired to the bedroom. I cleaned it up, making the bed and putting discarded items back in their places. The sun was now high in the sky outside. It was a beautiful day, with blue skies and a warm summer breeze coming off of the western shores. I had to shake the urge to skip my studies and go outside, so I reluctantly opened my desk next to the bed and pulled out a book titled "Modern Gaming: Programming Minds and Metal." I flipped it open to the bookmarked page, sat on the edge of the bed, and began to study for my programming examination.

Asuna and I were both trying to get into the same college: Kokibura University of Technology. It was a premier college near Okinawa that had opened its doors in 2017, and it specialized in programming technology. It was also home to the world's first college-based Full-Drive research division. Since I was dead set on my career as a Full-Drive technician, Kokibura was the best I could hope for.

Asuna wanted to work on network security. Before the events that trapped us in Sword Art Online, she had no real interest in video games, though she had always been good with computers. After the events of those two-and-a-half years, however, an ever-increasing interest in technology had begun to grow within her. Though her original aspiration had been to become a doctor, her newfound love for computers changed her mind. Kokibura had an amazing networking and computer security program, which caught her attention. It was also the same school that her father had attended before becoming the C.E.O. of the now disbanded RCT-O Processes Engineering Corp. It wasn't like her to want to follow in her father's footsteps, but she could not deny that the school produced excellence.

Kokibura was also the same university that the infamous Kayaba Akihiko had attended. Kayaba, creator of the Full-Drive Integration System (FDIS) that all virtual reality was based on, as well as the tyrant that had created the mess that was Sword Art Online, had received his diploma in hardware design and theoretical neurology from this very college.

I gritted my teeth at this fact, since I promised I would wash my hands of anything having to do with him. But, the events of Sword Art Online, as well as those of AlfHeim Online, were not the machinations of Kokibura University. I couldn't post the blame of all those deaths and illegal experiments on the faculty of the university, nor could I deny myself a proper education just because of my spite for _that_ man. If anything, I could learn from the mistakes of the pioneers of virtual reality, and maybe even develop a world that surpasses _his_.

It was a good goal, but entrance to Kokibura University was pretty exclusive. Students from Europe, China, America, and the rest of the world were also very interested in what the college had to offer. It wasn't going to be a simple matter to be accepted – I knew that. Your grades had to be good, and there was a very strict screening process - background checks - especially if you wanted to be in the Full-Drive research division. After the fiascos of SAO and ALO, anyone working with Full-Drive technology had to be screened to prevent any further disaster. I was confident that I would be accepted, but that didn't make the entrance examinations any less strenuous.

I looked up from my studies after a while and looked at the digital clock on the wall next to the bed. It was twenty minutes to noon. My work started at one. The little game store I worked at was only three blocks from our apartment, so I still had some time before I needed to leave. Feeling confident that I had studied enough, since several hours had already passed and the material was starting to feel redundant, I closed my book and put it back in my desk drawer, bookmarking the page with a pen. I flopped back on my bed and began to review the material in my head quickly.

A loud buzzing sound – my doorbell – interrupted my review. I slowly got up from the bed and walked over to the apartment door. I hadn't been anticipating any visitors, though It was true that Klein, Lizabeth, and Silica were known to drop by once in a while to see Asuna and I. However, they usually called first. Our families didn't really visit us either, since we made sure to keep in constant contact with them over the phone or email. _It's probably just a salesman or someone from the apartment._

I peered through the spyglass in my front door, but there was no one there. _Or, _I thought, _it could be someone playing a prank!_ I cautiously unlatched the door and opened it, hoping that a water balloon or some other trap wasn't awaiting me on the other side. "Hello?" I called, looking around. There was no one there at the door, nor anyone on the street below the second floor terrace. Confused, I turned around to go back inside. Then I noticed a small white envelope at my feet. I picked it up. It had no address listed on it, just the name _Kazuto-kun, _written in English letters, on the front. Someone must have personally delivered it.

There was definitely no indication of whom it was from. I glanced around once more for the letter's sender, then went back inside and closed the door, never taking my eyes off of the envelope. I made a b-line for the bed and sat down, brushing a bang out of my face. I carefully opened the white envelope. Inside was a small notecard with beveled corners. On it, written in red ink from a calligraphy brush, were the words, "Guess Who?" in English letters. The letters were very jagged and stylized, and had a chilling look to them. Below those words was a picture of an eye with a bleeding tear descending from it, drawn in black acrylic. There was nothing on the back of the card, and there wasn't anything else in the envelope.

"What the heck is this?" I said aloud. I thought it might have been a prank. Either way, it wasn't a very funny one. In fact, it was downright disturbing. It definitely wasn't sent by anyone I knew. Maybe it was meant for someone else at the apartment complex?

I put the card back in the envelope and set it aside. I still had an hour before work, so I decided to do a little investigating to see if I could get to the bottom of this. Something in the back of my mind really bothered me about the message. I started by knocking on each of the doors on my floor and asking about the letter. Only two other people were home at the time, and neither of them could offer me any answers. I didn't know when the other patrons would be back, so, at least for now, this was a dead end.

I returned to our apartment on the second floor after apologizing for the trouble. I pulled my laptop out from my desk in the bedroom and opened it up. I started searching the web for information. Maybe the card was propaganda for a cult or club? I started searching for the phrase "Guess Who?" and the eye symbol. I searched for a frustrating amount of time before deciding that I had hit yet another dead end. None of my queries had resulted in any answers. I glanced at the clock once more. It was ten minutes from noon. I sighed, closed my computer, stowed it in the desk, and got ready for work. _I'll figure this out later. _

I trudged across the three-block walk between our humble apartment and the small game store I worked at. It paid a meager amount, only nine-hundred yen an hour, but it was enough to pay the rent and necessities for living. Once in a while, and using the store discount, I was able to afford myself or Asuna some luxuries, but all I cared about was protecting our little piece of paradise. Not to say it was a bad job. Getting to work at a game store was just fine for me, and I enjoyed it enough.

Today at work was particularly slow. I worked the front counter, taking money for sales and providing information for customers. There hadn't been a big game release for the Amusphere or its struggling competitors in a month, so there hadn't been many customers frequenting the store in the first place. The occasional otaku would come in, asking for a niche game or for peripherals like statuettes, since my store catered those things as well. But, today it felt painfully slow. Only a handful of people came in during my shift, so I had plenty of time to think about the letter sitting on the bed at home.

During my break, I opened up a copy of _MMO Today. _There was an interesting article on the AlfHeim Online incident for its one-year anniversary. It had a section talking about its creator, Sugou Nokibuki. It also drew comparisons to the new version, created using the Seed, and how it deserved praise. Truthfully, I think the way they treated Sugou in the article was far too kind.

That man, as if he were the ghost of Kayaba Akihiko himself, had captured and imprisoned over three-hundred players of Sword Art Online and toyed with their minds for his own gain. Not only that, but he had done terrible things to Asuna; things that I almost killed him in cold blood for. He had imprisoned her in virtual reality as well, taking a special interest in her, and using the fact she was in a coma to his advantage. He was a coward, and the very definition of despicable… and I hated him. When I confronted him in AlfHeim Online, I did so much damage to his virtual body that his real body had a violent reaction in reality, and he suffered several disfiguring injuries. He went limp on his right arm, scar tissue appeared in his abdomen, and he became blind in his right eye.

He hadn't take these injuries lightly, either. After dealing with him and releasing Asuna (and the other players) from AlfHeim, I raced over to the hospital where she was being cared for. Sugou was waiting for me. He attacked me, meaning to kill me for what I had done to him. His injuries put him at a disadvantage, however, and I was able to subdue him, despite his size and build. That night, I had an opportunity to end his life in that hospital parking lot. I wanted him to pay for what he had done to Asuna, but, in the end, I spared him and put my trust in the authorities to bring him to justice. He was arrested that night.

However, justice doesn't always keep up with the latest technology. What Sugou had done was blatant kidnapping, illegal experimentation, torture, not to mention fraud. However, criminality in Japan didn't fully understand the concept that was being pitched. Because the victims weren't under any physical duress, and proving any of the "torture" when there were no physical marks was impossible. In the end, he was only sentenced to seven years in prison and eligible for parole in two.

It was a joke. He wasn't even charged with abusing Asuna, because it had been her 'virtual' body. Since there were no signs of physical abuse on her body, and despite her desperate testimony, those charges were dropped as well. After all he had done, after all he had put us through, his punishment felt more like a slap on the wrist. We had hoped we would never need worry about him for the rest of our lives, but something told me that wouldn't be the case.

The article was short, only a few paragraphs long. I felt like they could have described in more detail the horror that was AlfHeim online. It seemed they were doing their best to support the newly recreated version of the game that had arisen since the incident, so the grittier details, like the imprisonment of three-hundred SAO players, were omitted.

I closed the magazine and looked up at the sky, my back leaning against the stone wall of the shop. Dark clouds were starting to form on the horizon. There was a thunderstorm approaching from the west. I could already hear the faint rumbling of thunder off the coast. I only hoped it would wait for my shift to finish in a few hours, so I could get home before it hit.

I finished work at five with relief; the second half of my work day wasn't any better than the first, due to lack of customers. Boredom had sunken in, temporarily taking my mind off the letter at home. Without any hesitation, I clocked out at the station near the front of the store, grabbed my black rain jacket, and started walking back to the apartment. It was beginning to rain. The dark clouds had almost completely covered the sky and it was so dark that the tall traffic lamps on the sidewalks had turned on. It took only ten minutes to walk back to the apartment, but during that time, my pants, shoes, and head got soaked. The rain had picked up considerably by the time I reached the apartment, into a full torrent. _Ugh…_ I sighed. I rushed to the stairs to the second floor, under the canopy to get out of the deluge. Shaking my head of loose rain drops, I used my key and opened the door to my shanty abode.

It was dark inside. Asuna hadn't gotten home yet. She had said that she needed to pick something up on the way back, so I wasn't concerned_._ However, I thought I'd check up on her, just to be safe. After all, the weather was getting bad outside and I didn't want her taking any risks walking home in this torrent. I opened my cell phone and scrolled to her number in the contacts. I clicked _send_. The phone call connected, and I waited.

Asuna didn't answer her phone. I left a message. "Hey, Asuna, it's me. It's raining pretty hard out there today. Call me if you want me to pick you up on my bike… in fact, just call me when you can anyway…"

After finishing, I closed the phone. I pulled off my work shirt and pants and changed into more comfortable clothing. I collapsed on the bed, face-first into a pillow, and started thinking about all sorts of things. I kept my cell phone next to my ear, in case Asuna happened to call back. Either way, she should be home in a few hours. I stopped thinking about it, and, at some point, I drifted off to sleep, exhausted from work.

When I woke up, I immediately scrambled for my phone, next to my ear. _Shit! _My phone told me that it was 10:09pm. I had taken a very long nap indeed. I looked at the missed calls list, but nothing showed up. I hadn't received a phone call from anyone, let alone Asuna. I rolled over on the bed, holding the phone above me. I sighed, and let my arms fall to the bed to either side of me. "Come on, Asuna." I said, exasperated. I sat up, got out of bed, and did a quick check of the apartment to make sure she wasn't already home.

She wasn't.

I tried to call her cell phone again. Once again, I was greeted with her voice mail message. I left another message, frantically asking her to call me back as soon as she could, and telling her that I was getting worried. I repeated these calls every five minutes or so. She'd probably be pissed at me for using up so much of her mailbox, but I'd rather have to explain it later than sicken myself with worry in the meantime.

It was getting very late – almost midnight. I was exhausted, and I needed to sleep. Maybe Asuna had been out at a club, got caught up with friends, or her phone turned off. I did my best to push these worries of mine to the back of my head, and replace them with logical explanations. After finally reassuring myself that she can take care of herself and I was being overly-worrisome, I changed for bed, crawled in, alone, and vainly tried to drift off to sleep.

I didn't sleep very well that night. The room was always lit by the light of my phone, which I compulsively checked every twenty minutes or so. Every time I began to drift off, I fell into a state of half-dreaming, where nightmares of Alfheim and Aincrad flooded my mind and violently jerked me back to reality. At some point during the night, fears began to come back to me like a whirlwind. This was entirely unlike Asuna.

I must have cried myself to sleep. When I woke in the morning, dried tears coated my eyelids and cheeks. There was no bright sun to greet me through the windowpanes. There was no delicious smell of Asuna's cooking or the feeling of her head resting on my chest. Reluctantly, I opened my eyes. However, what I saw, standing above me, was not what I had expected.

The girl staring at me had short-cropped black hair, silver-blue eyes, and a soft, pale face. Her cheeks were painted a gentle tint of pink, and she had a gentle smile upon her lips. It was a face I knew all too well.

"Suguha…?" I mumbled. "What are you doing here…?"

My cousin, Suguha Kirigaya, was standing above me. She was wearing a simple blouse and short jeans that clung to her hips. On her feet were a pair of pink flip-flops. Her eyes glistened gently when she heard me speak.

"Don't you remember, brother?" She chimed. "You said you and I were going to hang out today."

"Erh…um…yeah! I remembered, sis. It's just…well… why are you here this early?"

"Huh?!" She exclaimed, confused. She looked at the clock, then back at me. She put her hand over her mouth and giggled, "But its already two o'clock, brother! Did you just wake up?"

My eyes widened. I had slept in really late.

"Hey, Sugu…" I started, pulling myself up into a sitting position. "Have you seen Asuna today?"

"I haven't… why? I thought you and her were inseparable…" Her eyes shifted away from me. "You two… you didn't have a fight, did you?"

"Eh, no, no!" I said. "I just haven't seen her today and I wanted to know if maybe you ran in to her when you came here today." I lied. I didn't want to worry Suguha, and, besides, it wasn't her problem. In fact, it was probably just my imagination anyway.

"Brother…" Sugu slowly reached a hand to my cheek, examining the tear stains on my face with sibling concern. "Have you been crying?"

I didn't know what to say. I had to explain it somehow. "No, its just that my eyes sometimes tear up at night. Nothing you need to worry about, sis. Now, give me a minute to shower and change, and we'll go get some lunch."

Sugu's cheeks became slightly pinker at my enthusiasm. I loved my dear cousin. After all, she and her mother had raised me ever since my parents died when I was young. She was practically my sister, so I treated her as such. Though we had had some confusion in the past about our status as siblings and friends, we had gotten past all of that. Though, I had a feeling that the roots of her feelings for me were still there deep inside her. Thankfully, in the past year, she had done a good job of masking them. Putting all that aside, my sister was a wonderful person, and seeing her here cheered me up a little.

I spent longer in the bathroom than I had intended. As I stood there underneath the hot water, I allowed myself to get lost in thoughts of Asuna, who still hadn't returned to the apartment. My overly-critical mind was now calculating ways to deal with this situation. Should I go look for her? Where do I start? Maybe start at her work? Maybe she had college business to attend to last night and got held up…

I let the steaming hot water flow over me as I thought about it. When the warm water finally started to lose its temperature, I decided to finish up and get dressed. I had to do something about this whole situation, but ditching Suguha wouldn't be fair. We hadn't had much time to see each other lately, and it was rare that both of us had time to hang out, so today was special. I could just tell her about it, but the kindred part of me told me that she would be equally upset about the whole situation, and I didn't want to sadden her as well.

In the end, I decided that telling her about it was still the best decision, but not right away. I'd tell her after lunch, so at least we could have a little time together without dealing with catastrophe…

_Catastrophe… _I thought. The logical side of my mind told me that this would all blow over by the end of the day and that there was no reason to fear anything sinister. However, I couldn't shake this feeling of dread.

After I was finished buttoning my black collared shirt, I wiped the mist from the bathroom mirror. I brushed my unkempt locks out of my face and stared into the mirror. The tear streaks that had mired my reflection earlier had been washed away. I had let my hair grow out in the past year, and now it almost reached my shoulders. There was a linear scar on my left cheek: the remnants of my final battle with Sugou a year ago. The scar was very light, and hardly noticeable, but I was a constant reminder of the danger I had been in that night, not to mention the danger that Asuna had been in as well.

I finished getting dressed and opened the bathroom door. Suguha was lying on the bed, arms and legs spread like she was making a snow angel.

"Took you long enough!" She said, jumping up into a sitting position.

"Yeah, sorry," I forced a chuckle. "I've just had a lot on my mind recently,"

"Well," she said, standing up now, "You can tell me about it over some lunch, then. Where do you want to go?"

I knew exactly where I wanted to go. "There's a place with great Takoyaki over by where Asuna works, in the city. Sound good?"

Suguha nodded and smiled, eyes closed.

We took my bike into the city, my sister sitting on the passenger rack behind me, arms wrapped around my waist. The air was chilled from the wind and lack of sunlight. Grey clouds were hovering over the city, signaling that rain was on its way yet again. As we winded through the streets on the bike trail leading to the restaurant, I thought about how to approach Suguha about my worries.

It was true that this restaurant had good Takoyaki, and it was true that I wanted to spend time with my sister…

But, more importantly, I needed to get some answers, and her workplace, I had decided, was the best place to start. It was cheap of me to drag Suguha along with me on this escapade, but, I couldn't stand not knowing any more.

I had to figure out what was going on.


	2. Chapter 2

**[ N]**

**- Chapter 02 -**

The small, traditional-style restaurant was well furnished. Cherry wood chairs and cabinets, a marble bar top, and small modern light fixtures illuminating the booths gave it a mixed look of modern and rustic. The atmosphere was quite inviting. It is no wonder why both Asuna and I had come here so often to eat and relax.

Suguha and I had chosen a booth next to a window, which I spent a lot of my time gazing through. The milky-grey sky that foreshadowed another rainstorm reflected off of the windows of the tall buildings across the street, making them look like gleaming towers of platinum. At the bottom floor of the building right across the street from this little diner was a storefront with high ceilings and large window displays. One of the stores within this front was called _Flaire_ – A clothing store renowned for its modern appeal. It just so happened that this particular location was where Asuna worked.

As I stared out the window, Sugu chatted with me about this and that. I asked her about various basics: how she was doing, how Mom was doing, how school was going, and her gaming interests. The last topic, because of our mutual interest in it, sparked the longest conversation. We traded stories about new games coming out, our experiences on the most recent VR games we had, and, for a while, reminisced about things that happened to us a year ago in AlfHeim. Suguha had grown much more confident around me over the past year, and I felt like our relationship as siblings was much more amicable than it had been before. Her gleaming personality showed brighter than a star, as did the constant smile on her face while we waited for our food and talked.

I poured another cup of steaming hot tea from the ceramic pot in the center of our table and sipped it, slowly. It had a sweet smell and deep red color, and tasted quite good. As I sipped it, my sister continued to chat enthusiastically with me, and I felt a bit at peace - all things considered. I couldn't help but smile by the way that Suguha was looking at me: she was completely contempt.

After what felt like an eternity of happy chatter, our conversation finally died down. I looked around the restaurant. Wanting to break an extended silence, I spoke up. "So…" I tried to think of something to ask her. I hadn't spoken to her in weeks, so it was harder to find a topic not already covered. "So…how's everything with your boyfriend?"

"Huh?" She exclaimed. Her face turned a little red. "Um…we… um we're fine."

"Getting serious with him?" I said bluntly.

"N-n-no!" She said defensively. Her face was turning a shade of pink that showed through the slight makeup she was wearing. "Nothing like that." She now wore a sour expression. "He's pretty indecisive about what he wants to do, actually,"

"Do you love him, then?" I asked.

"I'm…I'm not sure right now, brother," She shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Obviously this line of questioning was making her uncomfortable. Part of me wanted to continue, for the sheer want of teasing my poor sister, but she spoke before I could retort.

"So…anyway, how about you and Asuna? You said you didn't see her today? Does that mean…"

Now it was my face that began to turn an odd shade, but not red. Even without seeing it, I knew it was turning pale. I swallowed the worrying feelings working their way to the front of my mind and forced a chuckle. "We're doing well. Never better. We're just both really busy and…" I couldn't swallow my concern. It was becoming harder to hide my reason for being here. I opened my mouth to begin speaking, when Sugu suddenly interrupted. "Oooh! Our food's here!"

A waitress with long hair wearing a red-and-white apron walked over and bowed, placing two plates of takoyaki in front of us. I decided to let the food distract the current conversation. We both bowed our heads to the waitress, thanking her, and then picked up our chopsticks and began to eat.

"Bruhher…" Sugu said with a particularly large bite of food in her mouth. She swallowed before continuing. "Why did we really come here today…?" she asked. Suguha was obviously trying to be direct, but by the tone of her voice, I could tell she wasn't confident about it. I stopped dead, in the middle of a bite. My mind froze. _I knew this was coming…_

I put my chopsticks down on the half-empty plate of takoyaki in front of me. "What do you mean?" I replied casually. "I told you, this place has great Takoyaki, doesn't it? I wanted to take you somewhere nice…"

"But, there's another takoyaki joint a block away from your apartment…we could have just gone there. Are you sure - ?"

"I like this location better…" I nonchalantly forced an answer. Of the many qualities my sister had, ignorance was not one of them. This wasn't the first time she had suspected something from me, or caught me in a lie. Annoying, yes, but it was something I expected of my kin.

"Brother…"

"Besides," I continued. "I wanted to go on a bike ride with my sister. Is that so wrong?"

"There's no reason to get defensive," Sugu said, bluntly and scowling at me. "Is there something wrong?"

"I'm not getting defensive!" I said, annoyed. The two chefs at the sushi bar near the front of the restaurant began to glance over to our table. We were making a scene. I could feel the peering gazes of the other patrons on the back of my neck, so I took a moment to calm down. _Maybe I should just tell her._

"I couldn't help but notice that we're right next to Asuna's store, Brother."

"Sugu…" I couldn't look her in the eyes anymore. "Why do you have to ask me about it? I just wanted to spend time with…"

Sugu realized what had happened too late. She had pierced the mental block holding all my worried feelings and fears, and they came all flowing out at once. She put her hands over her mouth and her eyes grew wide. She reached a hand over to mine, which were now covering my face. I was fighting back tears and panic. Her hand touched mine. I didn't fight back. "Now you've gone and done it…" I said with a frogged throat. "Asuna…didn't come home last night. She's missing,"

I took a few deep breaths, and then sipped some of that red, sweet tea to calm my shaking nerves. After a few moments, I continued and told her about Asuna. It took a few minutes to get all the words out. The whole time, Sugu sat there, dumbfounded, eyes fixed on my face.

"It wasn't that I didn't want to hang out with you, Sugu," I continued. "You're my sister, and no matter what, I would never turn you away. I just didn't know how to approach you about all of this. I thought if I could just come here and look for her, I wouldn't have to turn you down today. It wasn't fair to you to burden with you with all my troubles, so I tried to avoid that as much as possible. Understand?"

"Hrmph," she snorted.

"I was going to tell you, Sugu. But I wanted us to at least be able to enjoy our lunch together without any worries," I dropped my chin to my chest, my long hair draped over my forehead.

"Its…its alright," Sugu said. The agitation in her voice had disappeared, and she sound legitimately concerned. "I know she's special to you. I can't imagine how worried you must be right now. So…" It took her a second to finish that sentence. "So…let me help you look for her. Enough of this cloak-and-dagger attitude of yours!"

"Sugu…" I said weakly.

Suguha put both hands on the table and stared at me intensely.

"You have always tried to do everything on your own in the past. You went after an insane maniac who wanted you dead while everyone else around you was helpless! You chased after a disgusting pervert who wanted her to himself and who almost killed you! You did all of this without any backup. You shouldn't have to do it anymore,"

"This isn't like that…"

"You're always taking on all of this stuff by yourself! You want everyone else to take it easy and play it safe but you always charge in head first with your sword raised without giving yourself the same courtesy! You always make others worry about you! Why don't you ask for any help? Why don't you ask for _my _help more often?"

"THIS ISN'T LIKE THAT, SUGUHA!" I yelled. The restaurant fell silent. An awkward calm pierced the energy in the room. Eventually, everyone in the parlor slowly went back to eating their food, leaving Suguha and I there to finish our meals in silence.

I put my chopsticks down after finishing the other half of my Takoyaki. I wiped my lips with a cloth, and spoke to my sister once again. "Sugu… I didn't ask for your help because I didn't want to raise a fuss. Asuna is a woman now, and she can do as she pleases. If she forgets to call, or text, or disappears for an evening without telling me, then it's up to her and me to deal with it. People forget to do things that are important, especially when they are in love. It's probably nothing, but I didn't want to put my worries on people and scare them too. You're blowing all of this out of proportion, and doing all of this didn't make me feel any better about all of it. In fact…" I could feel tears starting to form in my eyes. "You…"

"I'm sorry," Suguha apologized.

"Whatever," I jived, wiping the subtle droplets from my eyes. As much as I prided myself on being tough, I really was kind of a crybaby.

"Is…can I help you look for her still?"

"Sure," I said. Suguha reached across the table and placed a hand on mine. This definitely wasn't the start I had hoped for. Now I was feeling guilty about all of this. I mean, running through the city looking for a lost girl who was probably just out doing something with friends was a really stupid thing to do in the first place. I never expected Sugu to let it explode like this. But she had a way of hitting me right in the heart when she least expected to. My frail psyche from the last day of worry made me especially vulnerable to this kind of thing. Now, at the end of it all, I felt as though I had betrayed my sister. "Sugu," I said, as I was paying the bill. "You're really a jerk, sometimes,"

Sugu didn't say anything. She just hugged me from behind, saying, "So are you, Big Brother."

I thanked the people at the takoyaki restaurant for putting up with the drama that had followed us. I bowed deeply before leaving the building. The hostess just waved a casual hand at me and replied with a "No big deal." After leaving the store and closing the door behind us, I took a deep breath of fresh air. The sky was starting to clear up and flakes of blue could be seen among the milky clouds. Across the street from us was Asuna's workplace. That was where I wanted to start our search.

"Brother," Suguha said, standing beside me.

"Yeah?"

"Why haven't you called the police about her? Shouldn't that have been the first thing to do?"

I sighed. I knew this question was coming and I was prepared for it. "Sugu," I started. "The police don't call an all-city search for someone who has only been missing for a single night. Imagine if I called them up and said 'my girlfriend's been missing since last night and I can't find her.' They'd write up a file and put it on some desk somewhere and they wouldn't do anything about it for a few days, and I couldn't stand that,"

"Still though…!" She replied.

"I've already called them, Sugu," I interrupted. I turned my gaze to her large, greyish-blue eyes. "They said they can't do anything for at least another day, and only if she's still missing. That's why…" I looked forward. "That's why - for now - we have to do this ourselves."

Suguha and I walked across the street to _Flaire._ The modern architecture and glass walls made it look more like a western attraction than a clothing store in Japan. There were several tan-skinned mannequins standing in the bay-style display windows out front. They were dressed in silky white-and-red attire and wearing flamboyant hats. The clothing looked very expensive. The interior of the store looked more like an art gallery, with pale flat walls and small lights illuminating the ceiling and different displays. There was a single cashier's counter near the back of the store with a single attendant, dressed in a posh business suit.

Suguha had wasted no time in leaving my side and looking longingly at all of the expensive displays. _So much for the help, sis._ It was fine with me, though. I made a b-line to the counter in the back. The young, female attendant greeted me with a bow. "Welcome to _Flaire!_" she said with a song in her voice. "What can I do for you?"

Not wanting to be rude, I quickly bowed as well. "Eh…yeah, thank you,"

"Of course. Looking for a gift for someone special? Or do you just have an interest in our fine…" She paused, examining me closely with her eyes, which made me feel very out of place. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Excuse me for asking, but you wouldn't happen to be Yuuki-san's boyfriend, would you?"

"Hah?" I replied in recoil. _THAT was sure forward questioning! _"Uh, yeah. My name's Kirigaya: Kazuto Kirigaya…but, how did you…?"

"I've seen her phone background before," the attendant said, giggling. "Oh but where are my manners?" She extended a hand to me. "My name is Azuka Kagamine. Asuna and I were friends in primary school, so I've known her for quite some time," She grinned as I shook her hand. She whispered something I couldn't hear.

"What?" I said.

"I said you're quite handsome! But, oh, my manners again! What brings you to Flaire, Mr. Kirigaya? And with _another_ woman? For shame!"

"Ah, well, that's my sister, Suguha Kirigaya. Anyway, um…" I shook my head and focused. "This is going to sound really strange, but, did Asuna ever show up to work yesterday?"

Azuka looked perplexed. "Well of course, silly! She showed up right on time, like she usually does. And she left last night at around eight - out of the front door… I thought for sure she would be skipping herself all the way back to _you_ at the end of it! Are you saying…"She paused for a second and put her hands over her mouth melodramatically. "You don't know where she is?"

I must have looked distraught when I replied, judging from Azuka's sympathetic look. "Eh…no, she never came back last night. I was hoping someone here could give me some answers,"

"Lemme try calling her for you, sweety," Azuka said. After I was done speaking, she opened up her phone and dialed Asuna's number. "I know you're her boyfriend and all, but sometimes girls just need to get away for a while. She might answer me if I call." She said, reassuringly. However, Asuna never answered the line. "Huh…" She whispered, confused.

"Sorry, but I figured that wouldn't work," I cracked a friendly grin. "Hey, one more thing: Asuna said she needed to pick something up after work yesterday. Any idea what that might have been? Did she talk about it at all?"

"I'm sorry, dear, but no," Azuka said. "I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful. I really hope you find her before tomorrow. She's got work and, well… It's not right of her to worry you or I like this, right?"

"It's okay," I said, still grinning. "I'm sure it will work out in the end." I bowed deeply and thanked Azuka for her help. Then I retrieved Suguha from one of the displays near the front and told her we needed to move on. Suguha left with me, but not before taking down the item numbers and prices of a few dresses she was interested in.

"H-hey! Mr. Kirigaya!" Azuka clumsily moved out from behind her counter and walked over to me. She stood so close to me that it made me feel a little uneasy. She pushed her phone in my face. Her phone number was displayed on the bright phosphorescent screen. Azuka's face was turning a pale shade of pink. "My number. If...if you hear from her, call me, okay? I…I want to scold her for this."

"Ah…okay. Sure." I took my phone out and flipped it open. I typed her number into the contacts and saved it. I then sent her a simple email with my number. "If you remember anything, um…"

"I'll send you a text right away!" She blurted.

Suguha had obviously had enough of this conversation. She dug her elbow into my ribs and groaned in disgust. Using this as a cue, I bowed to Azuka again and took Sugu by the hand. We stepped outside and took in the moist air of the summer rain season.

I was puzzled. If Asuna had indeed come to work yesterday and left as usual, then it meant that she had gone somewhere between work and her apartment. If only I knew where that was, I would have a clue where to look next. I should have asked her about it – I knew that – but I also knew I couldn't have possibly known this would happen.

"She was sure charming," Sugu joked.

"Whatever," I said.

I sat down on an aluminum bench outside of _Flaire_ and rested my chin on my fingers in thought. The sky had almost completely cleared up, but the humidity was stifling. I could see waves of moisture and heat moving in the air. There were lots of people moving in between the different shops that lined the street. The bazaar was bustling with business, but I didn't notice any of it. My mind was on Asuna. Suguha sat down beside me and placed a gentle hand on my back. I sat there and pondered our situation.

Wherever this item was that she needed to pick up, it could have been anywhere in the city. If she was going to be significantly late because of it, it wasn't likely to be in a place that was on the way to the apartment – that much I was certain of. But now I had another dilemma. How far away did she have to go? It was a stifling task to try and figure this out. The city wasn't a comparable size to that of Osaka or Tokyo, but it was certainly too large for a lost boy and his sister to search in one day, especially without a good direction to go.

Suguha continued to rub my back reassuringly. I gritted my teeth in frustration. Now I was really angry with myself. Other than her usual routine, I had never pried into her personal affairs that didn't concern me. I'm practically her husband – her companion for life – and yet… _If only I knew where to go next!_ If I had maybe just asked her about the place she was going, this wouldn't have happened.

As if to answer this call upon summons, an elderly gentleman with hunched posture and long white beard approached me and Sugu on the bench. He was wearing a tattered brown jacket and shabby trousers and I could only assume he was homeless. I looked at him with an awkward glance then averted my eyes. "I don't have any money on me, sorry," I whispered, not wanting to make eye contact.

The old man chortled in response. "I think you misunderstand me. But, perhaps, are you the boy who often comes here to pick up a nice young lady every Thursday evening? Hmmm?" His tone was chipper.

My eyes widened. It was true that I usually pick Asuna up at her work on Thursday so we can go to the Takoyaki restaurant together. I looked up from my chin and my eyes focused on his. "Y-yes! Yeah that's me!" I stood up and gripped the man by the jacket lapel and brought him to eye level. Suguha grabbed my arm and asked me what I was doing but I ignored her. I looked the man straight in the eyes. "Why? How do you know that?!"

The man put his hands up in the air in a sign of resignation. I loosened my grip on his lapel and let his feet firmly touch the ground again. "Sorry," I said. He adjusted his coat and then responded. "I've been on these streets – this street in particular – for seven years now, young man. It's hard to miss such an elegant young lady coming to and fro for several days a week. I heard some commotion in the restaurant over there and saw you looking very upset, so I thought I'd ask if I could do something for ya'," He smiled.

_Who is this guy?_ I said to myself.

"I apologize," I said aloud. "S…so you say you've been here for years? Can you tell me what happened yesterday evening? Did you see her here?! I need to know!"

"Hm…" he pondered for a moment. "Yes yes of course. I saw the young lady come into work in the morning as usual. I always admired the way she braids her hair. Reminds me of my sister before she passed. Err…sorry. But, as she left…" He paused.

"Yes?!" I said, rather loudly.

"Oh! As she left, she was carrying a large parcel in her hands. Now, that seemed quite unusual to me, since I've never seen her leave her work without anything but here little purse before. So I considered asking her,"

"What did she say? Did you talk to her?!"

"No. The young miss was on a bus before I could ask her about it. Quite unfortunate. Pretty young girl shouldn't be carrying around a valuable-looking mail package like that one around all over town."

"So she took a bus? That one over there?" I pointed to the nearest bus stop down the street. The old man nodded. I was suddenly relieved. If I took that bus, I could keep following her footsteps. I had to contain my excitement.

Suguha spoke up. "Thank you, kind sir. For the help," She reached into her purse and pulled out a few coins. The old man's yellowish eyes lit up. "I'd like to give you these, for your help today. But, before I do, do you think you could tell me which bus the 'young lady' took yesterday?"

"Oh, certainly, miss." He added with certain zeal. "Number twenty-four, north, toward Karuzato Station. That bus always comes early on that day so I always remember it,"

Satisfied, Suguha dropped the coins in the man's open hand and curled his fingers around it. She grabbed me, as I was still lost in thought, by the collar, and dragged me to the bus stop down the street. I did manage to thank the old man before I departed. To which he replied, "Oh, it was nothing," as he stared intently at the small coins in his hand.

The bus stop was no more than a simple painted bench and a street lamp. A sign that depicted the route of the bus was hanging from the lamp post. Sugu and I studied the map carefully. Then I noticed something.

"Sugu," I said. "This bus runs right by Kokibura…"

"What's…?"

"It's the college she and I want to attend next season." My heart started to race. "I think I know where she was going now. Suguha, we should take this bus to Kokibura,"

Sugu sighed. She looked up at the midday sun with a hand in front of her face to shield her eyes. "Let's go check there, then, before it gets too late," She smiled at me. We sat down on the metal bench and waited patiently for the bus to arrive.

Kokibura University's grounds were smaller than the average university. Long lawns of grass stretched back from the main entrance like long green airfield tarmacs. A single, long drive way ran past six large buildings that made the bulk of the canvas. They all had identical aesthetics and mostly glass exteriors. The modern buildings were shimmering brilliantly in the late-afternoon sun, and resembled priceless diamonds amidst the urban landscape. When Sugu and I departed the bus at the entrance, the dim clouds that had covered the morning sky had given way to bright sun. A gentle breeze was coming from the eastern shores, which helped to erase the stifling humidity. During our walk to the first building, which had a student information center, I asked Suguha if she was still okay following me around today through all this crazy traveling. She didn't say anything in reply. Instead, she gently grazed her shoulder against mine as we walked, then smiled, not looking at me. "If it helps…" she mumbled.

The lobby in the first building was lit by fluorescent lights across the ceiling in a star pattern. The plain white walls and reflective floor tiles gave the room a very post-modern feel. It felt sterile, like a hospital, and very far from a warm and welcoming college entrance parlor. Sugu and I walked to the front desk, manned by a young girl who didn't look any older than my sister. She had auburn colored hair and a simple amount of makeup on. She was reading a fashion magazine.

"Excuse me," I started. She didn't reply. So I repeated myself, slightly louder this time.

"Oh!" the young clerk said, surprised. She pulled something transparent and very small from her ears and set them aside. "I was listening to music. Sorry about that," she laughed. When she saw the confused look on my face, she changed her attitude. "Uh, sorry, sir," She cleared her throat. "What can I do for you?"

"Oh, um… I'd like to make a request for information,"

The girl looked perplexed. "Sure…"

"Can you tell me if a young woman came by yesterday? Her name is Asuna Yuuki. She's a student applicant here,"

"Sure, I'll check for you," The young clerk said. She pulled up a laptop from below the desk and opened it. She started typing. A few minutes later, she looked up. "Um, so you say she's a student applicant here?"

"Uh, yeah," _That's what I said, wasn't it?_

"Well, I found an Asuna Yuuki on here. But… well this is strange."

"What is?" I asked, concerned."

"Well, she's not listed on here as a student…for that matter… "

"What the heck does that mean? Check your records again,"

"But she's right here. But she's listed as a subject for a trial the research department is working on, in the full-drive research division. I can't pull up any more information than that. But it says here that she had an appointment here yesterday at 7pm. And it says she showed up on time for it."

None of this was making sense. Asuna was somehow involved in research that Kokibura was doing? And not only that, but why was this the first time I had heard about it? "What was the research project? Do you know?"

"No, it doesn't say."

"Who could I talk to about this? It's really important!"

"Only the dean would be able to tell you that, sir," the clerk retorted. "I can't access that level of information from here. Also, it's supposed to be a closed project, so you may not be allowed to know anything about it, even if you could access it,"

"I'm her boyfriend… she's never… I _have_ to know what she was doing,"

"Then you can ask her, sir,"

"I can't! She's -!" Sugu gripped my arm and stared deep into my eyes. She shook her head. I realized that I was leaning very far over the desk and that the small clerk behind it was looking worriedly at me.

"I apologize," I said, straightening myself up. "I appreciate your help."

I wanted to know more about this research. However, the logical side of me told me it was going to lead to a dead end. Suspicious as it was, there was no reason that whatever she was doing here was behind her disappearance.

"Before I go, miss. Can I ask how long she's been coming to the University for these appointments?"

The young woman clicked away at her keyboard for a few moments before answering. "A little over a month, it looks like. It says her first appointment was six weeks ago today."

"And one more thing: did it say anything about when she left the building last night?"

"No…"

"I appreciate the help." I said. I had reached a dead end, at least for tonight. I grabbed Sugu by the arm and lead her to the door.

I left the building in a rush. The sun was getting lower in the sky and yellow tinges were starting to appear on the horizon. I pulled out my cell phone once more. I had exhausted all possible answers to what I was supposed to do. I carefully typed Asuna's cell phone number on the keypad and, with my heart pounding, pressed 'send'.

The phone immediately went to voicemail. That meant her phone had shut off or it was out of battery. She'd never let that happen before. Now I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that something serious was going on, and Asuna was caught in the middle of it. But where should I go? What should I do? Who should I go to? Before I knew it, I was crouched down on the ground, hands sifting through my long hair in frustration. I started to cry. Suguha tried her best to comfort me, but none of her words reached me. I was too lost and frustrated to hear her.

On the way back to the apartment, I thanked Suguha for her help today. "I'm sorry it wasn't the best of times," I said to her. Sugu, who was riding on the bike seat behind me, tightened her grip around my waist and buried her face in my shoulder. "It's alright," she said. "I'm worried about Asuana-san as well…and my big brother. So, I don't mind," When we arrived back at the apartment, she hugged me once more, then started her walk back to her bus stop two blocks over. It was getting dark. The sunset had receded below the buildings near the horizon and the sky was a violent shade of truce.

I opened the door to my apartment, hoping to see Asuna standing there, smiling at me. She wasn't. The apartment was just how I left it: cold, dark, and lonesome. I was crippled by my fear for her safety. I was out of ideas. I had no one to turn to. In a few days, I would call the police and hopefully a search would go out for her. But I knew, if that was the case, the chances of finding my lost love would be very, very slim. What a hypocritical system. My worry turned to rage. I sat down on my bed, screaming into my hands. I was furious.

After what seemed like hours, I finally calmed down enough to try to sleep. Whatever the method, I had to try again tomorrow to search for Asuna. I wasn't going to give up until she was back in my arms, safe and sound. Before drifting off to sleep, my eyes rested on my studybooks on the bedside desk. I suddenly remembered that my entrance exams were starting soon, and I would need to study hard for them.

_Yeah, as if I could._ I didn't sleep much that night.

I opened my eyes to bright sunlight pouring in from the window above my bed. It was morning. My overstressed mind tried to make sense of my situation. I was desperately hoping the past two days were nothing more than a bad dream. However, my sense of reality ripped me from that hope. My heart started to beat fast. My face narrowed, my brow furrowed. I rolled out of bed, threw on some shoes, tightened my belt and put on a shirt. I had had enough. If I was going to find Asuna, I needed the help of a professional. I needed someone whom I could trust.

There was only one other person I could possibly go to. I had relied on him once in the past, and now I knew the situation was desperate enough for me to take it to him. Before leaving, I made sure to grip the white envelope sitting on my bedside desk and stuff it into my jacket pocket. I opened the door to the apartment, ran down the steel steps to the first floor, grabbed my bike, and saddled up. It was a moist morning with high humidity. The sun was shining brightly, sparse clouds drifted through the sky and the city was bustling over the horizon. I found a new sense of energy that, at least for now, made me press on. If I was going to figure all this out, I had to move now. I looked toward the horizon, bared down on my bike, and started pedaling toward the center of town.

All I kept thinking to myself was,_ hang on, Asuna. I'll figure this out._

**I apologize for the long wait for this second chapter. Writing this one was much more difficult due to the extra scenes I had to come up with and add to it. The next chapters should not take nearly as long to complete and upload. Thank you for staying faithful and I hope to hear more reviews as time goes on. I'm working hard to bring you a quality story. **

**Thank you for the feedback, and I'll see you all in a few weeks.**

**-Serodin**


	3. Chapter 3

**- Chapter 03 -  
**

By the time I reached the center of the city, the unpredictable summer weather had taken a turn for the worse. The sun had already receded behind a thick veil of dark storm clouds and the wind had picked up considerably, blowing heavy gusts that screamed as they traveled through the alleyways between buildings. Bits of debris started to whirl around dangerously and fly past me at a violent pace. This storm was going to be dangerous for sure - maybe even to the level of a typhoon. As I traveled through the streets on my bike, I noticed all too clearly that there were no pedestrians on the walkways. Most people seemed to have taken shelter inside. The lonely streets and dark atmosphere – despite it only being early afternoon - made it feel as if I were lost in some alternate dimension, trapped by some evil force.

I pedaled hard through the gusting wind. Leaves and heavy rain droplets cut across my face and my hair blew wildly around my shoulders, each lock becoming a dangerous whip in the torrent. My target was in sight, however. After twenty minutes of nonstop riding, I had reached my destination – and just in time. Storm sirens began to go off in the distance, signaling that everyone in the city should take shelter. The building in front of me was six stories tall, square in shape and with a plain exterior. The tall rectangular windows that checkered the sides were all lit, creating a drastic contrast to the almost nighttime atmosphere from outside. A long set of stone steps lead up to a pair of glass revolving doors. On the front of the building were large silver kanji, spelling out the words, "Ministry of Internal Affairs."

I locked my bike up on the rack to the east end of the stairs. The world around me began to thrash about in a torrent of rain, debris, and wind. As I looked out at the scene unfolding in front of me, my stomach lurched uncomfortably. The thought of Asuna being alone, out there in this hell, became all the more real to me. With that thought in mind_,_ I hurried up the stairs and spun through the revolving doors as fast as I could, stumbling as I reached the other side. I was greeted by pale yellow walls and fluorescent lights making up a drab entrance room. A long wooden desk manned by a male attendant was at the end of the small alcove. It had all the charm of an office building, and all the appeal. Not wasting any time, I moved quickly to the front desk, my shoes squeaking about on the tile floor, and put my soaking hands on the table. The clerk stared at me, a confused look on his face.

"I was out in the storm," I said, reading the clerk's thoughts.

"Well," the young man replied, glancing at the window. "It's going to be going for about four hours, according to the weather report. You can sit over there if you want to wait it out. Just don't go wandering into the offices on this floor." He gestured to a group of benches on the other end of the room. Next to them was an old-fashioned pay phone with a scruffy-looking phone book next to it. "Or there's a phone over there if you want to call for a ride. Other than that, there's nothing – "

"Actually," I interrupted. "I'm here to see someone at the Ministry," I wiped loose droplets of rain from my forehead. "I need to know if he's here right now." A stroke of thunder from outside marked the end of my request.

"Oh…" He said, turning to his computer. "Is he an agent with the ministry or another staff member?"

"Detective, actually. I've spoken to him before and I need to see him today if he's in. It's urgent,"

The clerk opened a desk drawer and retrieved a clipboard and some papers from it. He set them down on the desk in front of me. "If you have something to report to one of our detectives, please fill these forms out and –"

_So much for being urgent! _"Now look!" I spat, slamming my hands on the table again. "I need to see him, _now_. It's absolutely important and it can't wait for paperwork. Please…"

The clerk sighed. "There's no reason to get angry. What is the detective's name?"

"Takashi Sagara," I replied. "He was formerly the lead detective working for the SAO Incident Task Force,"

"The what?" The clerk asked.

"Sword Art Online,"

At the mention of those words, he paused. He turned to the phone next to his desk and punched in an extension number on the keypad. After a few seconds, the clerk had a very short conversation with someone on the other end of the phone. He turned to me after replacing the receiver on its pedestal. "Follow me," He said. "Mister Sagara will see you now."

I followed the young man through winding halls of pale yellow walls and wooden office doors to a set of medium-sized elevators. I had been through this building once before, almost eighteen months ago. When I escaped from Aincrad, I had contacted the Ministry of Internal Affairs to see if they could help me locate Asuna in the real world. Because I had a wealth of information about what had happened in SAO during the crisis, I had been directed to meet with a young detective named Takashi, who had been assigned as the head of the SAO Task Force. Takashi was very understanding of my situation at the time, and after exchanging all the information I had to offer, he helped me locate the hospital where Asuna had been. Before we parted, he had given me his card and said if I ever needed him again, to come by and see him. I was going to make good on that offer today. After all, I didn't know who else to turn to.

We took the elevator to the fifth floor of the building. The architecture on this floor was less cramped than that of the first, and the walls were a brighter color. Outside the windows, I could see that the wind and rain had reached a violent ultimatum. "This way," the clerk said. He led me to an office room down the main hallway He knocked on the plain wooden door.

"Enter," came the response from inside.

"You heard him," the clerk commanded. Before entering, I thanked him quickly and bowed to show my appreciation. Then I twisted the handle and entered the office.

Takashi Sagara was sitting in a plush leather chair behind a wide steel and carbon-composite desk with many drawers. Like a typical office, it was cramped with plainly-colored walls lined by bookshelves and posters of art. In the corner by the desk, there was a large planter with a tree-like plant growing in it. I recognized it as a Japanese peace-lily plant. It was blooming with large pink flowers. The light in the room was bright and sterile.

Takashi was no taller than me, though roughly ten years older. His narrow face and short-cut black hair extended in to a slender figure covered in an expensive business suit and jacket. On his breast was a silver badge with three English letters, 'M.I.A.' embossed on it. His silvery-blue eyes pierced my skin as he examined me.

"We meet again, Kazuto. Take a seat," his tone was solemn. He gestured to a rigid wooden chair in front of his desk, and suddenly I felt very jealous of his soft leather one. As I took a seat, Takashi put one leg over his knee and put his hands together in a relaxed fashion, leaning back in his chair. "What can I do for you this time?"

I brushed damp locks out of my face and wiped the moisture off of my forehead. "There's no one else I could think to turn to at this point. I need your help,"

"Obviously," he said, very serious. "Or you wouldn't be here right now,"

"Eh…yes. It's about Asuna – the girl I asked you to help me find a year ago…She's missing, and I need your help to find her,"

Takashi raised his thick, black eyebrows in response. "You mean you never found her?"

"No!" I said, louder than I had intended. "No, in fact, we've been together for about a year now, _living_ together, even! But two days ago, she never came home after work. I tried calling her, her family, and I even retraced her steps yesterday after she went missing, and I couldn't find any trace of her!"

"I see,"

"Please…I don't know what to do. She's gone, and I'm going crazy thinking about her and..." My throat started to become choked with tears. "And I don't know what else to do about it!"

Takashi took a minute to respond. For a moment, I wondered if he even listened to what I had to say due to the dispassionate expression he was wearing. However, after I was finished, he reached over to a box of tissues on his table and handed one to me. I used it to wipe the beginnings of tears – tears I was fighting – off my face.

Finally, Takashi answered. "So your girlfriend is missing, and you came all the way to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to find your answers?"

"Yeah, that's right," I said, drying my eyes with the tissue.

"I can appreciate your situation, Kazuto, I really can. But the Ministry doesn't handle missing-persons cases, unless it's connected with a matter of national security. Did it ever occur to you to go to local law enforcement?"

"Her parents called them the day after she went missing!" I said, "But they never called back. We can't wait any longer. Something could be happening to her right now and they'd never find her in time! You said to me, a year ago, that if I needed you again, to come to you, and that's what I'm doing!"

Takashi sighed. "Alright, alright," he said with his palms raised in my direction. "Look, I'm not supposed to take on cases like this, but you just so happened to catch me right after closing another case, so I have nothing on my desk right now." He opened a drawer and pulled out a leather-bound detective's notebook and opened it. He pulled a pen from his shirt pocket and clicked it in his hand. "What I'm going to do, Kazuto, is ask you a couple of questions. Once I get some notes down and I can look at the situation as a whole on paper, I'll let you know whether or not I can help you further on this. However," he added, "The Ministry is always coming up with new work for me to do, so if I can't find enough evidence to file an official report with the bureau about Miss Asuna, then I will have to hand this over to the local authorities. Do you understand?"

My heart lit up. Even if it wasn't optimal, there was a beacon of hope shining on my situation. "Yes! Thank you, Takashi,"

"Don't thank me yet," he said plainly. "Now, I want you to tell me a few things about Miss Asuna, and yourself, your routines, and your relationship together,"

I could feel my face turning red at the mention of our relationship. "Is…is that standard procedure, to ask that?"

A very slight grin appeared on Takashi's face. "Hell no, but I want to know anyway. If I'm going to help you, I need to see the situation from your eyes as well as mine. It's not standard, but it's what I do."

"Right…" I replied, discomforted. Takashi started to ask me questions about myself, Asuna, our families, our relationship, and our jobs. I told him about my sister, and Asuna's family. I recanted every step I took since she disappeared, told him about her visit to Kokibura that night, as well as the package she was supposedly carrying when she went there. Every detail I could remember, I told to Takashi. By the end of the questioning, Takashi had filled two sheets of paper with closely-knit kanji.

"Alright," he said, putting his pen down. Behind him on a small side table was a coffee maker with a half-pot of coffee still warming on it. He spun his chair around to face it and poured two cups of coffee into Styrofoam cups. He handed one of them to me. "Do you take sugar?"

"No…" I said. To be honest, I never really enjoyed the taste of coffee in the first place – sugar or not. Nevertheless, I accepted the cup from him and sipped it slowly. The hot liquid helped to calm my nerves and the kind gesture, however small, warmed my heart a little as well. The coffee was bitter, but smelled good regardless. "Thanks,"

Takashi didn't answer. He took a long drink from his cup and set it on his desk. He carefully examined his newly-written notes. He flipped back and forth between the pages, running his fingers down the lines of writing like he was an archeologist uncovering a delicate piece of pottery. This was how I remembered Takashi when I met him over a year ago. He was an incredibly precise, dedicated, and a passionate detective. It had taken him a few days to find the hospital Asuna had been taken to after the SAO incident, but during that time, he had worked almost nonstop. This is why I could trust him. In a lot of ways, he reminded me of myself.

After several minutes of waiting, Takashi finally spoke to me. He closed his journal of notes and went back to sitting in his relaxed fashion. "Okay, Kazuto. I think I have an answer for you – three, in fact."

"Three?" I asked, confused.

"Aye, three. There are three likely possibilities of what might have happened to Miss Asuna, according to the information you've given me."

He paused, and took another sip of coffee. "The first is that she is simply off doing something by herself and she hasn't bothered to contact you or her family. She could be off with friends, or doing something that maybe you or her family wouldn't approve of. Many girls live double lives, Kazuto – two marriages have told me that."

My expression sharpened and I had to restrain myself from telling him off. "I've heard that one before…" I said, frustrated. I was reminded of what Miss Kagamine had said yesterday at _Flaire. _Takashi took no notice and continued.

"The second possibility is that she has genuinely been kidnapped, and is in danger. This is the most unlikely possibility. Kidnappings are very rare, even here in Japan. Statistically it's very unlikely someone would take her, even considering her considerable family fortune. However, we shouldn't rule this possibility out either."

"And the third?" I said, anxiously. Takeshi's face took on a grave look. I braced myself for what I was sure he was going to say.

"An extension of the second one, actually. That she was indeed kidnapped, and the kidnappers weren't interested in her money, information, or anything material. There's the possibility she may already be —"

"I got it…" I interrupted. I didn't want to hear it. I knew it was a possibility, but I wasn't having it. She _had_ to be alive. Asuna was far too resourceful, strong-willed, and intelligent to be dragged into a ditch without a fight, and I was sure that no assailant could match her cunning. "I'm sure she's alive,"

"Really?" He said. "Good, then. Let's leave that last one by the wayside for now, since following that assumption won't lead to anything fruitful. It would be a waste of our time and sanity if we went around looking for a corpse,"

I groaned in disgust. Takeshi took another sip of his coffee. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "When you do this job long enough, you start to lose your sense of tact. I'm not exactly used to working with the victims of these kinds of crimes, you know?"

"Whatever," I said, dejectedly. "So should we go forward with the first or second possibility?"

"The first one is the most optimistic, and most likely. However, let's say the second is true for just a brief moment. People who kidnap for profit or gain, generally speaking, only do so if they know the victim or someone who would be willing to pay the ransom for the victim. A random kidnapping would be unlikely and sloppy, and they likely would have contacted you or her parents for a ransom by this point. The quicker it's over, the quicker they get their money…and can start on the run from people like me, you know?"

"I see…" I replied.

"Unlikely as it is, I need to ask you a few questions to disperse any lingering doubt."

"Like what?"

"Well," he started. He leaned forward in his chair and folded his arms on the desk. "Do you and Miss Asuna have any enemies – anyone whom might want to do harm to her or you, or would be after something you or she or her family own?"

"Eh…no…I mean," I thought about it. There were only two people I could think of. "Yes, but it couldn't have been them."

"Oh? So you do?" Takashi said.

"The only two enemies that Asuna or I have ever had couldn't have done this. They're both out of the picture," I explained. "The first was Kayaba Akihiko, creator of Sword Art Online, as you know. But he's dead…"

"Indeed. And the other?"

"He's in prison for what he tried to do to Asuna and me, so he couldn't have done it." I explained.

"What was his name?" Takashi asked.

"Sugou," I replied. "Nobuyuki Sugou"

Takashi's eyes grew wide. Something must have occurred to him at the mention of Sugou's nomenclature. "So… you're the one who was attacked outside of the hospital a year ago?"

"Yes, Sugou came at me with a knife outside of that hospital that night… but, didn't you know that? I thought you would since both Asuna and I were SAO players,"

"No, I didn't. His arrest was handled by local authorities and his prosecution was handled by a different department of the Ministry – quite poorly, I might add. I was never granted access to that case myself, so I didn't know who was involved…my god…" He paused for a few moments, looking into empty space, obviously in thought. "This certainly complicates things, but it does answer a few questions as well,"

"I'm sorry?" I said. "What does Sugou have to do with all this? He's in jail. What could he possibly do –"

Takashi let out a very large sigh, interrupting me.

"What?" I said, edging my way to the tip of my chair. My hands gripped the arm rests tightly and I became very nervous about what Takashi was going to say next.

He sighed heavily, and then put one hand over his eyes, massaging the bridge of his nose with his fingers in frustration. "Nobuyuki Sugou was released from prison a week ago, Kazuto,"

It was like a large rock sank to the bottom of my stomach as I heard those words. I felt a sensation like hot lead coursed through my veins and my body froze in place. For a moment, I felt like I had died, frozen in time and lost in the words that were just uttered to me. "He ESCAPED?!" I yelled, jumping up from my seat in protest. Takashi didn't budge. "Sugou escaped from prison?"

"He didn't escape, Kazuto. He was released to his home – "

"That can't be!" I said loudly. "He was supposed to be in prison for at least seven years! How could they just let him go in only one? This has got to be a joke…" I was breathing very heavily, fists clenched at my side.

"I'm not. Sit, Kazuto, and stop raising your voice – it isn't helping anything for you to get upset." He gestured to my seat. I took a moment to relax my raging breath and reluctantly sat down again. Once I was calm, Takashi took another sip of his coffee and continued. "This is going to complicate matters, but, I should explain the situation to you."

Takashi adjusted his seat and got comfortable. Then he began his long explanation. "Crimes like the ones that Sugou committed are supposed to land one in prison for well over twenty years. However, in Sugou's case, the defense had a trump card. From what I heard, the fact that all of his crimes were committed in a virtual environment, and the fact that the experiments done on the SAO players left no mental or physical damage, made it difficult to justify the charges against him. While many of us at the Ministry saw his crimes as inhumane, in the end, the verdict was lackluster at best due to discrepancies in the law. This menial sentence of seven years was more like a hard grounding. What was even more insulting was that his sentence could be even further reduced by paying a bail amount. There was a lot of talk about what the bail amount should have been. Since Sugou's accounts were nearly empty after the damages he had to pay to the victims, and because he had no source of income, an amount similar to five-hundred-thousand U.S. dollars was set upon – woefully small but it seemed unpayable at the time. None of Sugou's family wanted anything to do with him, so there was little risk that he would be able to pony up. The Ministry agents on the case seemed to be satisfied in the end so it wasn't followed further."

He paused. The wind and weather from outside could be heard through the thin walls of the building. It must have been like a typhoon outside at this point, judging from the amount of noise bleeding through.

Takashi took another sip of coffee. The words that were coming out of his mouth dumbfounded me. The idea that my greatest foe was wandering around with his freedom made me worry, for sure. I wondered how reality could have been so cruel, so twisted, and so blatantly unfair. A monster was now walking the streets of the city, and he may very well have already found his prey. And Asuna might already have been…

"However," he continued, "About a week ago, a large sum of money made its way into Sugou's bank account. The amount – five-hundred and twelve-thousand U.S. dollars, to be exact – was paid to him – and this is the official statement – for 'services performed for the Eiz-Bleind Engineering Corporation of America last year.' Of course, the Ministry performed an investigation on it. It was far too convenient a situation for one of our hardest-fought cases in recent history to turn belly up all of a sudden because of an unexpected event like this. But, our trail came to a dead end when we tried accessing Eiz-Bleind's financials. The company, of course, denied us access to their files, and the damned Americans wouldn't help us gain dirt on one of their major economic powerhouses. Eiz-Bleind practically brought the Americans out of their entire economic downfall ten years ago, so it's not surprising that they're trying to protect one of their most important assets. But, either way, that's where the trail ends. Without any information, we had no choice but to sit and watch as the money filled his account and he was granted his freedom. He paid and was released four days ago, to his home, here in this city."

"In any case," he concluded. "This will more than likely go down as one of the greatest blunders of modern law enforcement. Some gears have started to turn in the national government because of this moral failure of law. Things are going to start changing in the way we deal with criminals of the digital era, thanks to Mister Sugou. It's a damn embarrassment, though, that he can't see the justice he deserves. He's an animal, from what I heard, and if I had my way," he paused and stared into my eyes. "I would have cut his throat myself,"

"You've got to be kidding…no way…" The words could barely leave my mouth. I was paralyzed in my seat. "They let a dangerous criminal like Sugou out of prison just because he paid his way out? 'Blunder' is hardly a strong word for it. And now he's just been left to do what he wants?"

"I agree it's not right, Kazuto. Something about his whole imprisonment smells fishy to me, but we didn't just leave him to his own devices..." He said, sternly. "He's been under watch day and night since he was released. He's under a very strict house arrest – according to my friend in the local bureau. No privileges, no rights; he's living under constant surveillance and has a guard posted around his house twenty-four hours a day – the Ministry made sure of that. In fact, the Ministry is working on a way to get him sent back in prison, where he belongs. I heard that the MIA Public Security division was actually given the case. Apparently, his home arrest is to last at least until the five-year parole period ends. I'm very surprised you weren't told about all of this, all things considered."

"Still though…!" I interjected. However, when I tried to think of what to say next, I found myself at a loss for words. My mind was boggled. Takashi began to rock slowly back and forth in his leather seat again. The storm was still raging outside, judging from the sound. I tried to imagine what he was thinking about now, and I imagined his mind as a torrent similar to the one bearing down on this building.

He sighed once again after organizing his thoughts. "Something obviously doesn't sit right with me about all of this. Sugou being released under such specific circumstances is obvious cause for concern. The fact that Miss Asuna has also disappeared at almost the exact same time is too perfect to be a coincidence. I want to say that there's a definite link between the two, but…"

"But what?" I asked. I was losing my temper very quickly. Knowing this, I took another deep breath and tried to calm down. "Isn't it likely that he has Asuna, right now?"

"As convenient as that would be, I don't think that's a logical conclusion, Kazuto. Think about it, and you'll see it doesn't add up. There's no way that Sugou could have been released from prison only a few days ago and then kidnap a girl whose location was a mystery to him while under Ministry surveillance. It just doesn't make any sense,"

I was devastated. Finally, I thought I had found an actual lead – and a person to blame – for Asuna's disappearance. However…_He has a point…Dammit! I'm flailing around in the dark here!_

"There has to be something else we're missing!" I said, raising my voice. "There's more to this than what we already know! There has to be!"

"Oh, I agree, Kazuto," he said. "This circumstance definitely warrants further delving." He cleared his throat. "Well, I can say for certain now that this is something the bureau could justify looking in to. In fact, considering the current situation with Sugou's unexpected release, I can probably take this to the department chief. But it's going to take some time to dig up the answers we need. If, indeed, Sugou has something to do with Miss Asuna's disappearance, he'll have left a trail – a trail we can follow – that will lead us to her. What I can promise is that I'll do my best for her, and you, in the meantime."

I was speechless. Takashi's dispassionate, silver-blue eyes, though blank of any expression, held the brightest glimmer of hope I had seen since Asuna had disappeared.

"What can I do to help you?" I asked.

"You can let me, and my fellow bureau members, do their jobs. Go home, try to relax, go to work, and call us in a few days. We should have an answer to some of these mysteries."

"But –"

"And whatever you do, Kazuto" he said, looking very stern. "Do _not_ go running after Nokuyuki Sugou. We will question Sugou ourselves. Cornering him yourself won't do anything except cause us problems as we're investigating – not to mention put you in a serious amount of trouble. I know who you are, 'Kirito,' and I know that you like to deal with your problems head-on, but this isn't a game. This may be far bigger than just a man out of prison and a lost damsel. There may be something much more sinister going on in the background, and to find it, you need to let us here at the Ministry do our jobs. Am I clear, Kazuto?"

His silver-blue eyes bore down on me with immense pressure. I had no choice but to agree with him. "Clear…Takashi," I averted my eyes.

"Good…" he replied. "I'll call you tomorrow and update you on our progress as much as I can. Until then, go home, dry off and get some sleep," He cracked a friendly grin. "You look like hell,"

"Sure," I said. I stood up and bowed deeply, "Thank you for everything, Takashi." I scooted the solid wood chair back into its corner and threw my coffee cup, still a quarter-full of now ice-cold coffee, into a waste bin. Before leaving, however, I remembered something else I needed to ask of him.

"Takashi," I started, reaching into my jacket pocket and unfolding a crumpled piece of notecard. It had a bleeding eye on it and the words 'guess who' written in black ink. I handed the piece to Takashi and he began to examine it. "Do you have any idea what this might be?"

Takashi flipped the plain piece of paper over and over again and examined it closely. "I'm afraid not, why?"

"It came in a letter to me on the day Asuna went missing. There was no return address on it and I have no idea what it means, but I have a bad feeling that it might be connected to all of this somehow."

Takashi continued to examine it. "Doubtful," he said, "But I'll send it down to my lab chief and have her take a look at it for you, just in case. We'll see if she can see something we don't,"

"Thanks again," As I reached for the handle to the door, I said one last thing to Takashi. "You know what you said about this not being a game?" He stared at me, but didn't say anything.

"Neither was Sword Art Online…" With that, I stepped out of the small office, not waiting for a reply, and made my way to the elevator at the end of the hallway. As the doors to the shaft closed, I could see through the window that the weather outside was beginning to calm, but the sky was still black as night.

I had the utmost confidence in Takashi and his skills as a detective. I had faith in Asuna, who was strong enough in body and spirit to overcome almost any obstacle. But now, fear was gripping every single inch of my body and making my skin crawl. Sugou was the most terrifying villain I had ever faced in all my life, obsessed with power, money, and willing to destroy the lives of innocent people to attain it. He truly was the ghost of Akihiko Kayaba himself, though unlike Kayaba, his focus was solely on me and Asuna. He would be out for revenge – I was sure of it. Asuna was still missing, and I had a really good hunch of where she was. If Takashi wanted to deal with it his way, I was fine with it, but I had to know myself, and I had to know as soon as possible.

The doors to the elevator slid open with a mechanical sound when I reached the first floor and a small bell chimed to signal its landing. I stepped out, hands in my jacket pockets and staring at my feet as they moved across the floor. A scheme was brewing in my mind, grinding in the gears of my subconscious as I moved to the exit. Outside, it was still raining hard. While not the torrent I had experienced a few hours earlier, the wild wind still made the idea of biking through town back to my apartment an unappealing concept. I wondered how much longer this storm would last, and, at the same time, images of a poor girl with chestnut hair struggling around in the rain being chased by a villain forced themselves into my waking mind. Tears began to drip from the tips of my eyes as I stared at the hell outside. "I'm sorry, Asuna," I whispered to myself.

I wiped the tears from my eyes and took a few deep breaths. Then I looked to my left, where that old-fashioned phone booth stood. The clerk at the front desk looked curiously at me as I walked over to the kiosk and open an old phone book. _It's got to be here._ I said to myself. I flipped through the pages of the residential section and ran my finger across the lists of names frantically. Finally, after a few minutes, I landed on the name I was looking for. _Nokuyuki Sugou_. The phone book was a few years old, so it may have had an old address, but I had to try. If Sugou had hunted down my love, my _wife,_ I would find him. I folded the pages of the book over again, walked to the exit, and spun through the revolving door. Once outside, the cold wind and wet weather did little to deter me.

I had forgotten about the rain, the storm, the danger I faced moving through town in this torrent. I had forgotten about reason, logic, and my usual sensibility. It was a familiar feeling; one I had felt many times while rushing forward with my blades in Aincrad. Takashi hadn't been wrong about me. I was going to charge forward and do what I could to get the love of my life back into my arms, no matter the implications. My goal was so close, I could practically reach out and touch it, and I wanted to take hold of it.

I unchained my bike on the side steps and got a general bearing to head in. "I'm coming, Asuna!" I shouted as I flicked the kickstand to its raised position. "Just wait for me a little longer! I promise, I'll get there in time!" I pushed down hard on my pedals and headed down the street.

As I left, however, I couldn't shake the feeling that a set of eyes had been watching me.

**Chapter 3 is done and I've already begun work on chapter 4. Thank you to those who have offered me feedback and know that I have taken all of your reviews in to account. I'll see you all in a couple of weeks with another chapter. Please remember to review it when you can!**

**-Serodin**


	4. Chapter 4

The typhoon that had touched down a few hours ago had made its way to the edge of the western horizon. The storm's visceral clouds had parted, revealing a pleasant sunset made of a myriad of warm colors. The sun on the horizon blinded my eyes as I traveled on my bike, making it harder to read the street signs along my route. I had been travelling for almost an hour now, to a location on the far end of the city from the Ministry's headquarters. I was so focused on my goal that I hardly noticed how fatigued my legs were getting after the hour of break-neck pedaling. So many thoughts were going through my head right now – none of them too pleasant. My head was filled with fantasies of rescuing Asuna from the clutches of Sugou. I thought hard about what I was going to do to Sugou. I thought hard about what I probably should have done in the past, too.

The last time I had Sugou in a vulnerable position, I had decided to spare his life. I had so much hate for him: so much anger about what he had done that I had been fully ready to cut him down. He had assaulted Asuna – in the most degrading of ways – in front of me. He had mocked me and threatened to take her, and my life, away from me. To be perfectly honest, there was a part of me that wanted him to die that night a year ago. However, in the end, I had decided that it shouldn't be me who made that decision. I spared his life. After that cold winter evening, I spent a lot of time thinking about why I had let him live. Maybe it was because I didn't want to go to prison myself. Maybe it was because I was naturally merciful and kind. Maybe it was because I just didn't care about anything but Asuna at the time. In the end, I never found the answers to those questions. Now, however, as I was getting ready to confront him face-to-face, I once again asked myself: "Am I going to kill him this time?"

"No," I said aloud. I reminded myself that murdering Sugou wouldn't solve any problems, nor would it make me feel better. 'What's done is done' is what I painfully reminded myself. I needed him alive to tell me where Asuna is, so I couldn't let myself be distracted by thoughts of vengeance. I might need to threaten him and put him in a vulnerable situation like last time, so the only question was: did I have enough leverage to make it work? Was there anything I could use against him to make him tell me everything he knew about Asuna? I wasn't sure, but, I had no choice. I had to confront him. I was running out of time, and I was losing my mind with worry.

I rounded the corner at the end of the street. There were only two blocks to go before my destination. I had used the time riding to develop a plan of attack. What I was attempting to do was extremely risky, and probably foolhardy. But, two years of doing things like this in Aincrad, plus the time I had spent in AlfHeim Online, gave me confidence in my abilities. I knew I had the wit to pull this off.

My heart pounded hard in my chest as I turned on to the final street. The sun was now completely below the horizon in the west, and only a few fragments of sunlight remained in the sky. The moist air and rapidly-cooling temperatures had created a thick fog that covered the street and houses on the block. The murky atmosphere was only broken by the light from the occasional street lamp or house light, and there was no moon in the sky to light the rest of the darkness. I had the perfect setting for what I was going to do.

Instead of riding right up to Sugou's home and barging in the front door (which was probably guarded by the Ministry anyway), I had planned a slightly more tactical approach. I rode my bike fast to the edge of the street and skipped up onto the curb. I rode across the sidewalk only a few meters before turning in to a house on the left. I quietly came to a halt in the back yard of the home and dismounted. I leaned by bike against a fence post and crouched down next to it, peering into the next yard over. Sugou's house was three houses away. _I'm so close, Asuna._

I took a moment while crouched to assess my current situation. In Aincrad, I had spent a considerable amount of time grinding my stealth skill for encounters just as this. Though I had no system to assist me while bound by the rules of reality, becoming proficient at stealth in SAO had taught me a few very important things. The first and most important thing I had learned was to always assess the situation and surroundings before doing anything else. Many times, the actual act of sneaking past a set of guards, or stealing a precious item, could be achieved in a matter of seconds, but if planned poorly, the result would be disastrous. In fact, it was better not to linger unless absolutely necessary – a straight shot to your destination was always the best idea. To do this, however, you had to spend a considerable amount of time assessing your route and possible obstacles.

I looked across the group of lawns between myself and Sugou's house. This neighborhood was built in a western style, which was signature of higher-income families. Between me and his yard were long lawns of grass with a few stationary shrubs. In the yard right before his, there was a line of bushes that could be used as a hiding spot if I needed to backtrack. After examining the lawns themselves, I looked around at the houses. If the Ministry of Internal Affairs had Sugou under watch, they more than likely would have the area around his yard and house under camera surveillance. If I was caught sneaking in to his home, being scolded by Takashi would be the least of my worries. I looked hard, but I didn't find any form of technical surveillance. Though, I couldn't see all the way to his home clearly due to the thick fog in the air.

This was the kind of challenge I would expect from the higher levels of stealth skill training. I would have to take it slowly, stopping ever-so-often to check for obstacles. If I wasn't careful, I could be caught by a guard or security equipment. I was starting to question my level of confidence. I reminded myself what was at stake, and decided to make my first move.

I crouched down and took a few deep breaths, exhaling clouds of vapor in the chilled air. With the greatest speed I could muster, I shuffled, body low to the ground, to the side of the first house. When I reached the far side of the back wall, I stopped, remaining very still, and took a few more breaths of soggy air. From here I got a better look at the yard next to this one. I spent a few more seconds to look around and check for security equipment. Once I was sure there wasn't, I prepared to move to the next home, with the line of bushes as my target. I crouched down as low as I could, and sprinted, hunched over, to the bushes. The only sound I made was the soft patter of my sneakers on the wet grass. I moved behind the line of bushes and stopped. I took a few more deep breaths to calm myself. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins and if I wasn't careful, I would begin to breathe heavily and I would be discovered.

At this point, I took a moment to examine Sugou's home more closely. It was a modest, two-story square house with white edging and simple style. It was undoubtedly expensive, given its location in this neighborhood and western appeal. I peered through the bushes and looked through the space between this house and his. I could just barely see the front end of a police cruiser parked out front. I became excited. The Ministry was indeed watching the house, which meant Sugou was inside – maybe even asleep - in the perfect position for…

I shook the thought out of my head. It didn't appear as though there were any security systems in place on the exterior of the home. It seemed strange, considering how much the Ministry wanted to keep tabs on him. There was, however, a police guard out front and no-doubt a security system on the inside to prevent breaking-and-entering. I looked at the watch on my wrist, which was lit by an LED light. It was almost 9:00 pm. If Sugou was still awake, I might be able to get in without his security system going off. Once inside, things would get more complicated. If I was going to do this, I needed to make Sugou talk to me without him calling for help. If he did, I'd be in more trouble than I could ever imagine. The whole plan would go belly-up.

Now a painful reality struck me. What was going to stop Sugou from telling his guard about me afterward? Sugou was the target for a major Ministry investigation, so I couldn't exactly put him into a coma (if it came to that) without being in a considerable amount of trouble. I suddenly regretted my choice to pursue Sugou as all of these thoughts started flooding through my head. "Ugh…" I sighed, quietly. This was a foolish idea. I should never have come here. What the hell was I thinking? What if Takashi had been right? What if there was something bigger going on here: bigger than just Sugou and Asuna? My little stunt could cost me so much more than just my freedom.

I sat crouched behind the row of bushes for several minutes and pondered my options. I couldn't stand anything happening to Asuna, but I couldn't risk messing up my only chance to get her back, either. I bit my lip hard in frustration. In the end, I decided to give it up. However, as I quietly turned around and planned a way to get back to my bike, a commotion erupted from Sugou's house. I froze in place, and listened carefully. There were two raised voices coming from inside the home. One was obviously Sugou's voice, judging from the pitch. The other, I recognized as well, but I couldn't place it exactly. Through the thick walls of the suburban home, I could just make out what they were saying.

"I'm telling you I don't know where she is dammit!" Sugou screamed his tone defensive.

"I trusted you! I trusted you and treated you like a son!" came the other voice. It sounded like a middle-aged man. "_She_ used to trust you too! You betrayed us, you betrayed my family and you betrayed the company! If I had a mind to, I'd have killed you myself! I'd have you buried and your name dishonored!" I could hear the sound of something shattering. It sounded like someone threw a glass at the wall. The other man's voice picked up again after a few seconds. "Now, I'm going to ask you one more time! Where is my daughter, you scumbag! Where is Asuna?!"

Now it made sense. It was Asuna's father, Souzou Yuuki. My eyes widened slightly. I wasn't the only one who had the idea to confront Sugou.

"I'm telling you, old man, that I don't know where she is! If she's missing, then I am _truly_ sorry, but do you think I would risk going to back to the big house over something like that? You stupid old codger! You are so quick to blame me for everything that goes wrong with that girl! You blamed me for her _minor_ reaction to the trial! You blamed me for her sickly behavior after she woke up from what Akihiko Kayaba did to her! You blame me for everything having to do with that girl! What about that piece of crap that she _loves_ so much? That 'Kirigaya' kid? Did you ever think he might be behind your daughter's disappearance?! He seems to have no problem with violence! Or did you forget what he did to me?!"

Sugou was getting hysterical now. His voice was cracking.

"Then how is it that my daughter disappeared right when you escaped?!"

"A fantastic question!" was the sarcastic reply. "Be sure to tell me when you find that out! Now, if you don't mind, I'd like you to leave! I don't have your daughter, Souzou! Now get out of my house before I have you arrested by the guard!"

I could hear footsteps on the stairs inside. I slid further along the bushes to hide myself from the back porch door. It sounded as though Souzou was ready to leave. A moment later, the screen porch door ripped open with tremendous force, and a middle-aged man with greying hair and lined face wearing a collared shirt and trousers exited the home in a rush. Another man, wearing an eye patch and holding a cane in his right hand stood at the threshold of the door.

Souzou spun around on his heels and screamed one more line. I crouched as low as I could behind the bushes to conceal myself. "I swear to god, you son of a bitch, if I find out you had _anything_ to do with my daughter disappearing, I will end you!"

As Souzou spun on his heels to leave the yard, I feared I may be seen. He was heading this way. However, Sugou hadn't let this assertion fly without contest. His voice ppped up.

"Maybe you should be more careful who you give your daughter away to then! First it was me and now it's that violent little brat, Kazuto! You're as worthless a thinker as you are a father, Souzou! I hope your little wench of a daughter is learning a valuable lesson right now! I hope you and her both suffer!"

It took every bit of control I had left to keep myself from jumping out from behind the bushes and slugging Sugou myself. "How dare you, you scumbag…" I whispered to myself. Not a moment later, I heard the familiar sound of a fist impacting with someone's face. Souzou, it seemed, had done my work for me, and had punched Sugou in the mouth so vigorously that they both lost their balances and fell onto the floor inside. Souzou picked himself up first, kicked the back porch door open, and stormed out of the house once again. He was escorted by a man in police uniform. It was the ministry official that I had seen standing in the front yard a few minutes ago. He looked extremely aggravated as he held Souzou's arms behind his back and forced him along the side yard. They walked just feet from me as they passed through to the front yard. Thankfully, neither of them noticed me in my hiding spot. Souzou was eventually released after a few minutes of stern discussion from the officer. He stormed to his car, which was parked in the front, and drove off in a hurry. The Ministry official entered the house from the front door and returned to his post.

The night became quiet again. The only sounds were the crickets in the grass and the gentle breeze through the dampened air. The thick mist from the afternoon rainfall carried the light from the lamps on each house much farther than normal. I suddenly noticed that my body was indeed casting a shadow that stretched beyond the threshold of my floral cover. I wondered if either Souzou or Sugou had seen it. Had they known that I was here the whole time? No, they couldn't have. I'm sure one of them would have confronted me by now…

I knew that Sugou was great at deceiving people, and had a manipulative personality. However, there had been no hint of deceit in his voice when he was screaming at Asuna's father just then. They were both driven by their overly emotional states. Souzou, like me, was trying to find his daughter, and Sugou seemed to be desperately trying to defend his innocence in the situation. If he actually had done something, I felt like his ego would have come through in his voice. It was something I knew about Sugou that most didn't. When he's confronted, as long as he has some sort of edge – whether knowledge, power, or a trick up his sleeve – he can't keep his arrogance in check. However, when Sugou is cornered, he folds and cowers. Unfortunately for me, it seemed like he was doing the latter. He might not know where Asuna is, after all.

"This is bad," I whispered. My current plan of attack was starting to seem like a waste of time. After all, Takashi had also voiced his opposition to the idea of Sugou having involvement in Asuna's disappearance. Not only that, but even if I wanted to confront Sugou in his home right now, there was a Ministry guard posted there! He would surely report any visitors (or assailants) to the Ministry. "This is bad," I repeated again.

"It certainly is, isn't it?" Came a whisper from behind me. Reflexively, I spun on my heels and stood up, raising my fist, in defense, to the person standing behind me in the fog. However, when I stood, I stopped my advance as the tip of a black cane touched my forehead. In front of me, leaning on his good leg and staring at me with one eye, was Nokibuki Sugou.

"Sugou…" I started.

"Tsk tsk tsk," He interrupted. "You wouldn't want to be arrested for trespassing would you, Mister Hero?" He grinned sadistically. His pungent arrogance was filling the air with an odor of unpleasantness. I don't know how he was able to sneak up behind me in the silence of the night, but I had no choice but to submit, as he had the upper hand. I couldn't risk anything while Asuna was still in his clutches.

Sugou gestured with his cane. I read the gesture and opened my fist, putting my hands in the air and moving them behind my head in a sign of surrender. I scowled at his expression. He was as happy as I had ever seen him. My reaction only intensified his enthusiastic look. "Are you going to kidnap me too?"

"Don't be such a child. I'm inviting you in for tea!" He paused, his eyes examining the series of yards behind me, "Since you happen to be in the neighborhood," He put on a slimy smirk and directed me to the back door of the small home. "Run," he whispered into my ear from a very uncomfortable distance, "And I'll have you arrested for assailing me in my own home,"

I was seriously scared at this point. I started to sweat and a deep, sinking feeling began to make its way from my throat to my stomach. All the blood seemed to drain out of my face. I felt cold, and my mind went blank. What was I going to do now? If the guard saw me, which I assumed he would, I would be reported to the Ministry. Takashi would probably have me arrested for interfering with his investigation, and the search for Asuna would end. If I spun around and attacked Sugou, I could probably overpower him due to his injuries, but he would surely expose me, resulting in the same outcome. I was between a rock and a hard place. _Think, Kazuto, think. You have to figure a way out of this!_

The door opened and I entered the small home. I clenched my muscles and prepared to attack, hoping that in the confusion I could escape without making a scene or being seen. It was unlikely, but my only option now. I prepared myself for combat, just as I had many times before. Sugou couldn't be that strong…

Another man emerged from the room beyond the kitchen. Wearing a police uniform and having short-cut, black hair and silver eyes, he was the Ministry guard that had escorted Souzou to his car earlier. _Great…_ There was no way I could force my way out now.

"Who's that? I told you after that last one, no visitors unless prior approval! You know the rules –"

I had no idea what to say.

"This is my nephew," Sugou spouted in reply to the guard's question.

"What?!" I blurted, unable to suppress my shock. I tried to turn around to confront Sugou, but was met with a cane to my back which told me to stand still.

"This is my nephew, and he stopped by to visit me, you dolt!" Sugou continued, aggressively responding to the guard's look of skepticism. "If you are wondering, he didn't know he was supposed to check in before visiting."

"Even still, he –" the guard tried to say.

"I'm sure you'll understand. This lad just missed his dear old uncle, and came by to visit."

"I'll have to report this, and he'll have to go after that. You understand, Sugou? We've been too lenient with visiting permissions with you, and we'll have to discuss this later. You're still under scrutiny for –"

"Whatever!" Sugou moaned in annoyance. "Can a man just have a few minutes with his nephew before he gets closed off to the outside world forever?"

The confused guard looked at Sugou, then at me. _Don't look at me! I don't know what to say!_

"Fine," the guard finally said. "Ten minutes is all I am giving you, understand? During that time, I will be contacting our superiors,"

_Our superiors? _Miraculously, my situation had improved. I couldn't believe what was happening, but I decided not to question it for the moment. "Thank you very much, sir." I said, bowing deeply to the officer. "I promise I won't be longer than ten minutes. It's just…" I turned and scowled at Sugou so the other man couldn't see it. "I haven't seen my _dear_ uncle in forever, so…"

"Whatever," the officer said. He turned around and moved into the room behind the kitchen. He pulled out a cell phone and made a call. It was now just me and Sugou in the kitchen.

"Would you like some tea, Kazuto?"

"What's your game-?!" I began to ask, raising my voice. Sugou quickly reposted by putting his finger on his lips in a sign of silence. I immediately stopped speaking, remembering the delicate situation I was still in. I was deep in enemy territory, with the fate of so many things hanging by a thin thread. I had to be calm, collective, and think things through.

"Something tells me that my little show there just saved you from a great deal of trouble. For once, it seems like you are at my mercy. Am I right?" He said. He walked over to the teapot and pressed a few buttons. The water began boiling in a matter of seconds. I said nothing, but continued to glare at him. "Oh? I _did, _didn't I? Splendid!" He chortled. "Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter. I didn't exactly want to be caught talking to you either. Take a seat, Kazuto," he said, lowering his voice. "And let's chat,"

I reluctantly pulled a stool out from beneath the kitchen table and sat in it. Trying my best to hide my apprehension, I quietly waited for Sugou to pour two cups of tea. He handed a silver plastic mug with the still boiling liquid to me and took a seat on the opposite side of the round kitchen table. He was wearing a collared shirt and black jeans. He set his cane next to the table, at which point it became as limp as a noodle.

"What's wrong with your cane?" I asked.

"It only stays rigid when it contacts with a surface. It's made of some synthetic metal that can change its density. Wonderful stuff, really. I guess they didn't want me to knock out a guard or kill myself. Not that I would do either of those, anyway."

"Why's that?"

Sugou scoffed at my reply. After finishing a sip of tea he set his cup on a coaster with an aggravated expression. "Isn't it obvious? Do I look like I want to go back to prison after I was so unexpectedly released? You, Souzou…everyone thinks I'm so eager to jump back into a cage and life my life out eating scraps like a rat!"

"You belong in prison, Sugou," I said, still glaring at him. "You're a monster who belongs in a cage,"

"And where do _you_ belong, young Kazuto? Where does a violent boy like you belong? And what were you doing in my yard this evening, huh?! Were you trying to finish what you started in that parking lot?! Came to kill big scary Sugou in his own home?!"

I was taken aback at this question. "What do you mean? I didn't kidnap three-hundred innocent kids and toy with their brains, not to mention kidnap a young girl who…"

"And how about you?!" he asserted. "How about a kid who beats one of his elders half to death, causing permanent nerve and muscle damage to his legs and eyes? How about a kid who put this man in jail two days before his wedding day? How about the boy who slandered a man's name and ruined his life! You think you're innocent as a butterfly, don't you?!" He slammed his tea cup on its silver coaster, sending drips of liquid over the round table.

I stayed silent. Sugou was getting hysterical again. I took a deep breath. "I'm not saying I'm a stranger to violence, or even to killing people."

Sugou stared at me.

"I've done my share of fighting, and I've even killed people before. But, I did it for the sake of protecting myself, or those who were precious to me… like…"

The soft sensation of tears began to creep to the tips of my eyes. "Like…"

Sugou began to laugh maniacally. This brought the attention of the guard in the next room. He stepped in to see what the commotion was. Sugou stopped cackling long enough to explain. "My nephew here just shared a _very_ funny joke, and I couldn't help but laugh."

"I don't care," the guard responded. "You have three minutes left. And keep it down," He moved into the next room again, leaving us alone. Sugou calmed himself with a few heavy breaths and stopped laughing.

"You know what I find so funny?" He said.

"What?" I spat.

"It's true, isn't it? Little Asuna is missing and you all can't find her! That's hilarious!"

"Why you piece of…!" I exclaimed.

"And I suppose you think I have her, don't you? You think the first thing I want to do after being let out of the slammer is kidnap little Asuna and have fun with her, isn't it?" He said, sipping tea again. "As much fun as that would be, it couldn't be further from the truth. You idiots all think alike."

"Then, do you have any idea what happened to her? Please…" I said. I was starting to lose control. "I'm losing my mind over this…If you have her…please just…just let her go… take… TAKE ME INSTEAD IF YOU WANT REVENGE SO BADLY!"

Sugou let out unending, hysterical laughter. "You…you seriously believe that I took your little Asuna, don't you? I KEEP TELLING YOU, YOU STUPID CHILD! I. DON'T. HAVE. HER!"

"THEN WHY THE HELL DID SHE GO MISSING RIGHT AFTER YOU WERE LET OUT OF JAIL?! EXPLAIN THAT! EXPLAIN WHY YOU OF ALL PEOPLE ARE ALLOWED TO SIT AT HOME WHILE THE PEOPLE YOU MADE SUFFER ARE STILL SUFFERING! I KNOW YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH ASUNA DISAPPEARING! I'M NOT LEAVING THIS HOUSE UNTIL I GET AN ANSWER FROM YOU!" I slammed my fists on the table and gave him my darkest glare. "You are a monster who belongs in a cage for the rest of your life, Sugou. You don't deserve the air you breathe, and I…" I swallowed the lump in my throat. "I should have killed you that night…"

"Maybe you should have, little boy." He said, nonchalantly.

"So what are you hiding from me?!" I said. "How did you get out of prison so easily?!"

"I believe that is a matter of public record. If you're so interested, look it up in the news," He downed the rest of his tea and set the cup at the edge of the table. He wiped his mouth and stared at me. "It's so annoying, having to tell the same story over and over,"

"I heard that you were paid millions of yen by a big American corporation." I replied. "I heard it was just enough to bail you out and leave you with a little more."

"Indeed, that is the case." He replied back, smirking. "But how did you know that little tidbit, I wonder? I don't believe it was in the news…"

"I know more about you than you think," I said with confidence. "What did that company pay you for, Sugou? Was it for torturing those innocent SAO players a year ago?"

"Oh my," he said, in an arrogant tone. "You've been speaking with some ministry honcho, haven't you, Kazuto?" His face took on a very serious expression. The bits of lamplight from outside glinted in his unpatched eye as he stared directly into mine. "If you really want to know," he confessed, "The money I received was indeed for more than just bailing me out of jail." He grinned.

"What else was it for?!" I said. I slid back in my chair.

"You see," he explained, "a certain corporation who I used to work for didn't want me to sit in prison for the rest of my natural life. No, no, no. You see, I have certain…talents… in my field that they value. It may have taken a few million yen, but even something as noble as a _trial_ can be tipped in the right direction. Paying the bail afterwards was a piece of cake,"

"You…you can't be serious. You had your trial fixed?! No amount of money could do that!"

"I think you underestimate exactly how powerful this corporation is, young Kirigaya. It's not just money, but influence, that tips the scales of a trial such as mine. Despite cute little Asuna's teary-eyed testimony," he said in a mocking tone, "money and threats still speak louder than a _poor, innocent _little minx… even one as good-looking as she,"

"Are you saying that you had the trial rigged, just so you could escape!? You couldn't have done all of this!"

"Oh, not me. No, I'm just a puppet to a much larger plan, little Kazuto." He made a circular gesture with his fingers. "A machination whose gears are spinning even as we speak. I don't expect your small mind could comprehend just how big all of this really is."

The words coming out of Sugou's mouth were unbelievable. It sounded like something out of a conspiracy theorist's notebook – too crazy to be real and full of delusions.

"Why would you tell me this?" I replied, in shock, "I'm just going to leave and go right to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and tell them all of this. You have to have realized that, right?" There was a slight shake in my voice. Something told me that going back to Takashi would prove more difficult than it sounded. Sugou wasn't stupid enough to let me have all of this information for free. He had something up his sleeve – I was sure of it.

Finally, Sugou sighed heavily. "Oh, but, you aren't going to tell anyone, Mister Hero."

"What did you say?" I said. Was Sugou going to try to attack me? "You can't do anything to me while that guard is in the next room, Sugou. You must be crazy…"

As if summoned by some invisible force, the officer from the next room entered. He was looking directly at me, a malicious look on his face.

"It was really convenient that you decided to show up here this evening, Kazuto. Unfortunately for you," Sugou said. "You put your faith in all the wrong places. It's a shame you came here expecting to act out some heroic role, just to fail in the end. It's time we end your little crusade." He stood up from the chair and grabbed his cane from the side of the table. "Maybe it would have been better if you _did_ kill me back in that parking lot a year ago. Maybe then, you, and young Asuna, wouldn't have had to die,"

_DIE?_ I fully understood the danger I was in right now. The ministry agent that was slowly approaching me was obviously paid off by whatever 'corporation' Sugou had mentioned. Standing in front of me were two men with the intent to kill me. I stood up without hesitation and quickly backpedaled to the door, almost tripping over myself in the process. I gripped the back of the stool I had sat in and lifted it over my head. "Don't come any closer, either of you!"

Sugou let out a chuckle. "Sorry, kid, we can't do that. You've been talking with the Ministry, and you know my little secret now. We can't have you running back to big brother and telling them everything, can we?"

"You know how dangerous, I am, Sugou," I tightened my grip on the stool above my head. "You know you can't beat me in a fight. What makes you think you can threaten me here?"

"You insolent, little brat!" With that, Sugou and the large man stepped toward me. Without hesitating, I threw the chair at Sugou as hard as I could. Apparently, he hadn't expected me to actually do it, so he was taken completely off guard. The chair slammed into his chest with enough force to send him toppling backward onto the hot stovetop that had prepared the tea just a few moments earlier. Sugou let out a horrific scream as his back and hands burned on the heated top. The hired guard, after pausing for a second to take in what had happened, threw himself at me. I sidestepped as quickly as I could and dashed out the back door. The guard slammed into the wall near the door and staggered before exiting the house to pursue me.

A billion thoughts were going through my head right now. I was tirelessly trying to make sense of what had just transpired. As my feet crunched through the damp grass of the lawn at breakneck speed, I considered calling for help, but knew that I couldn't. As soon as someone came to the rescue, the man pursuing me would use his badge and uniform to explain it all away. I would look like some delinquent running from the law, and I would be handed over to him, and my demise.

I had no choice; I had to keep running and try to lose him. I thought maybe I would have a chance if I could reach my bike.

My bike was parked at the end of the third house. The man was a full yard length behind me, and my bike a length in front of me. I would have to have considerable distance between us to unlatch the bike, get on, and pick up enough speed to escape. Could I make it? Would it work? These thoughts dared to distract me from my imminent goal of survival. I ran as fast as I could to the edge of the final house and around the corner to where I had left my bike just a few minutes before.

It wasn't there.

I had only seconds to react. Whether it was stolen or moved: it didn't matter. There was no way I could wait. I had to think fast. Next to the fence where my bike should have been, there was a loose piece of fencepost. I didn't have time to pick up speed and start running again, so I knew what I had to do. Without wasting a second, I gripped the fencepost and pulled it out of the ground. It was heavier than I was used to, but I could work with it. I moved to the side of the house and put my back as flat as I could against it. Any second, the man that was chasing me would round that corner. I took a single, deep breath, and waited for the sound of heavy footsteps to reach me. _It's just like you've done a thousand times before, Kazuto._

He rounded the corner. Everything slowed down as my adrenaline and reflexes took control of my body. In a single, swift swing of my arms, the wooden stint hit the man in the throat. He cartwheeled onto his back and clutched his chin and throat with his hands, unsure what was going on.

"Sorry," I said. I lifted the plank above my head and let it fly on the top of his head with a terrifying _crack_. His arms went limp and he stopped moving. I stood there, adrenaline still pumping, holding the fencepost in my hands. I took a few moments to relax and calm my breathing. After what seemed like an eternity, I was calm enough to continue. I discarded the plank in the grass.

I knelt down next to the man, my knees getting soaked by the damp grass. I took another deep breath and started to rummage through his pockets for any sort of a clue. If this man had been paid off by whatever group Sugou had been talking about, then there might be something on him that would identify it. I found a few yen, receipts for local markets, and the man's wallet. It was black leather with no label. Inside were his identification, a few more yen bills, and membership cards to various shops and services.

And then I saw it: A white plastic card the size of a credit card, with a magnetic strip on the back. There were no words or numbers printed on the card. However, there was a single symbol in red ink on the front. It was a bleeding eye, and it looked very, very familiar. It was exactly the same symbol that had been etched on the mysterious card I received a few days earlier. Whatever it was, I now knew there was a connection.

I pocketed the card and checked the man's pulse, my good nature fearing the worst.

I couldn't feel a pulse…and there was no breath above his nose. His chest wasn't rising, either.

I pulled my hand back quickly as if it were being burned in a fire. I tapped his shoulder. "Hey!" I called to him. "Come on!" I said. I forced one of his eyes open, hoping desperately that the man was faking it. I saw no pupil, only the white of an eye that had rolled back in its socket. The man was undoubtedly, unmistakably dead.

"Shit…!" I couldn't believe what I had just done. I stumbled against the fence using one hand to stabilize. I felt the familiar feeling of vomit creeping up my throat, and without any notice, I retched over the grass near the fence, just barely avoiding my own clothing and shoes. I cursed heavily and became hysterical. What had I done? What the _hell _had I just done? I know that I've killed in the past, but it never had a stench. It never had a feeling as terrifying as that stillness on this man's neck. It never had the glazed look of death that covered the corpse in front of me. The reality of the scene in front of me was sickening. I needed to get out of here, as soon as possible. I needed to run, now.

After controlling my convulsions, I began a quick, clumsy walk down the street, weaving back and forth in a daze. Sugou wasn't following me. He must have been cleaning his wounds back in the house, or a security system was keeping him from pursuing. It didn't matter to me.

As I wandered, lost in remorseful depression, I began to cry. I felt so alone. I felt sick, and weak. The buildings around me began to spin around and the night itself seemed surreal. And then the worst realization of all came at me like a whirlwind. After all I had done, after confronting Sugou and… killing a man, I still had no idea where Asuna was. I had no idea where to go next. I was a knight with nothing to protect anymore, lost among an endless maze with nowhere to go. I felt so hopeless.

"I'm such a piece of crap…" I cried. I started through the city. I only hoped I would make it home before the morning…it was getting cold.

After what seemed like a thousand hours of walking, my legs finally gave out beneath me and I dropped to my knees in the empty city street. I was exhausted, sick, chilled, and lonesome. My life was nothing without Asuna. She was the reason for everything I did in life, and I had finally lost hope of finding her. Even if Sugou had her, there was no way I could find her now. He would have surely killed her after that encounter.

I crawled through the puddles of water still on the street to a bus bench. My hours of walking aimlessly had leaded me to a nearly abandoned district of town. It must have been early morning, judging from the state of the dark, lifeless sky. No bus would come for me. No shops were open, and there was no one else walking among the empty storefronts. There was no one I could call at this hour. I was by myself, completely alone.

"I'm so sorry, Asuna…" I cried. I finally let all of the tears I had been holding back over the last week come pouring out in full. "I'm so…I'm so sorry. I'm sorry," I leaned back on the bench and let out my cries of agony. "I've failed you. I've failed your family…_our _family…I was…supposed to protect you…" I screamed in between streams of tears. My heart sunk to the bottom of my chest. I felt heavier than lead. I felt dead. And then, suddenly, I felt nothing at all.

I dreamt about a small cabin in the woods. There was a rocking chair on the porch, and sitting in it was a girl with long, chestnut hair, bathed in sunlight. I could smell the sweetness of the grass and sun-baked wood as I stepped up on the porch and approached the young woman. She was reading a small red book, her eyes fixated on the opened page. As I approached her, she looked up at me with a smile. She said my name.

"Kazuto." Her voice was like an angel's song. She beckoned for me to sit next to her in the wide, wooden chair. However, as I tried to touch her, my hand wouldn't budge.

"Kazuto?" She said again, louder this time. "What are you doing here?"

"I…" I didn't know what to say. "I'm here to save you…" I whispered, quietly.

"Kazuto?" she said again. Without warning, the world around me grew dark, and faded to black. Everything went silent, and the girl disappeared from in front of me.

Then, suddenly, the voice began to call to me again. My mind stirred and snapped back to reality. My eyes opened. I looked around, trying to ascertain the origin of the voice. I was back in that dark alley again, in the middle of the night.

"Kazuto! What are you doing here?!" The voice cried, louder than before.

I wiped my tear-stained eyes to help them focus as I looked down the darkened street. There was a shadow dashing toward me from the darkness. As the figure crossed under the lamplight over the street, I suddenly realized who it was.

Asuna, wearing what looked like a simple gown and in her bare feet, was running toward me from the shadow of the alley. As she approached at sprinting speed, she uttered another, desperate word.

"RUN!"

**-0-**

**I will be doing some updates on previous chapters soon. Just a little bit of continuity checking and proofreading to clean them up a little. Look forward to the next chapter in a couple of weeks. Thanks for staying faithful and I look forward to your reviews. **

**-Serodin**


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